By Christopher J. Jackson
Register-Herald Reporter
FAYETTEVILLE — Questions on the role of the Fayette County Board of Education were answered Monday night during state-appointed superintendent Dwight Dials’ first meeting with the board.
From Fayetteville High School’s auditorium, Dials stressed that he and the board are going to work together in the best interest of the children of Fayette County.
“This is going to be a collaborative effort,” Dials told the board, “because we want the changes that are made to last and to be sustainable and not just blown away with the next change of leadership.”
The board will have its opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions and recommendations, but it’s Dials’ job to make recommendations to the state.
“I’m not coming in here with a mindset to accomplish any specific thing other than what’s fair, reasonable and in the best interest of our children,” he said. “And all of us can have input into what that translates into.”
When it comes to his recommendations, the board’s ideas and inputs will weigh heavily on his decisions.
He said too often people look at the board as being separated as three to two or four to one, and that’s not how he sees it.
“I look at it like five ones,” Dials said. “Each of you have a point of view, you have a philosophy, you have something that you bring to the table, and I’m going to respect each opinion and try to factor all the input into it and be reasonable with my recommendations.”
Dials wants the board to make sure he continues to get a feel for what the board wants to see in policy. He said he may not be able “to please you all, but at least I want you to feel you can still suggest, recommend and give input and be a sounding board for me.”
The board will have full access to policies that are amended, changed and revised in order to keep everyone “up to speed,” he said, adding that “we all have to work together to make sure our policies are current.”
For personnel changes, Dials said, he has to submit them to the state for review and that once they’re returned he’ll share them with the board.
He said the county is too large to micro-manage and he’ll have to rely on his staff for budget and expenditures.
“I want people to understand the checks and balances may be a little different, but they still have to be there with all of us involved,” he said. “We want to do the correct thing, and we want to be able to defend as an entity what we’ve done.”
Dials said he’s here to do what’s right and he has room to grow in order to be a better decision-maker and team-builder.
He said if they do the right thing, it will last over time.
“That’s when reform and change takes root,” he said. “And those changes will take root and really amount to something that will produce and I think that’s what we’re all interested in is seeing our children reach their full potential.”
As of now, Dials said they’ve got a lot of work to do. He said he’s going to be very calculated and not let impulse and emotions take over.
“We’re going to be very deliberate and analytical and try to do the right thing,” he said. “Bottom line is what’s best for our children and being sensitive to that and getting people to work together.”
Dials said what the state, he and the board develop will be reachable and affordable and it’s not building-related.
“Everybody wants to reduce everything we’re doing to bricks and mortar,” he said. “But we’ve got to be better teachers, administrators and better educators and be more accountable, and that won’t cost the taxpayers a dime, but there’s a real benefit to be derived.”
— E-mail:
cjackson@register-herald.com
