Council gets down to key tasks

The Douglas-Sarpy County learning community council divided into two task forces Thursday to start the nitty-gritty work of drawing up plans to help the region’s disadvantaged youths.

One task force will propose a socioeconomic diversity plan for the learning community’s 11 member school districts. The other will decide how many learning centers are needed to supplement schools and what programs they should offer.

Council members had wrangled for weeks over the language in charters the group wrote to create the task forces.

“I’m excited to finally get down to work,” council member Dwite Pedersen said.

By law, the learning community must complete its initial diversity plan by Dec. 31 and open learning centers by June 1, 2010.

After months of organizational matters, the creation of the task forces marks the council’s first concrete step toward fulfilling its legislative mandate to improve academic achievement for children affected by poverty, frequent family residence changes and language barriers.

The council charged the learning centers task force with identifying and establishing “measurable outcomes.”

Council Chairman Rick Kolowski said the process at times “felt like chaos,” but he praised members for their “major, major accomplishments.”

The task forces will meet over the next few months, with each holding at least one public forum. They will report back with recommendations in the fall.

The diversity task force will research what programs and services to offer to foster socioeconomic diversity in school enrollment.

State law calls for the learning community to use open enrollment and possibly focus and magnet schools to have each school’s percentage of low-income kids reflect the number of low-income kids across the two counties.

Parents and educators from member districts may be invited to play a role in developing that plan, according to the charter setting up the task force.

The learning centers task force will work with council members in each of six subcouncil districts to create a plan for setting up the centers. The group will evaluate programs for elementary school-age children, looking at cost-effectiveness and impact on academic performance.

The law describes the centers as “visionary resource centers” that could offer mentoring, computer labs, and even mental health and nutrition services.

Both task forces are to deliver preliminary reports in October.

Contact the writer:

444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com