St. Charles' new superintendent outlining his goals

Bolstering community relations and improving classroom teaching are among priorities St. Charles' new superintendent plans to outline for the school board at a public workshop Saturday.

District 303 chief Donald Schlomann said he will present four goals he wants to achieve in the next year or two. He also is encouraging board members to offer feedback and ideas of their own.

"They may have other ideas as well, and we'll talk about those," Schlomann said Thursday. "Hopefully, we'll come to some kind of conclusion on what we want to work on in the next year, or longer in some cases."

The workshop is set for 8 a.m. to noon at district headquarters, 201 S. Seventh St.

For now, Schlomann said his goals are "very broad."

At the top of the list is creating a "public engagement process" to open a dialogue with the community about the district's academic capabilities and the constraints -- money and facilities among them -- it faces.

The superintendent, who took over in July, also wants to construct a plan to help teachers improve their work in the classroom.

"I'm not talking about improving curriculum; I'm not talking about improving programs," he said. "I'm talking about how teachers view the instruction process."

In addition, Schlomann wants to talk about making sure the district's new $1 million literacy curriculum is "supported and successful."

The final goal is helping teachers understand student-performance data so they can better evaluate what kind of an effect they're having on individual students.

"I see this as a dialogue between the board and the administration," Schlomann said. "It's a goal-setting process for the board, but I think these will become the superintendent's goals as well."

The board would vote in September on any ideas that come from Saturday's meeting, Schlomann said.