Nearly 100 community members shared their visions for the future of the Fair Haven School District at a recent workshop.

Expectations for the Future, held on Nov. 11, was the second in a series of four workshops open to the public designed to help drive the district’s current strategic planning initiative dubbed FAIR HAVEN VISION 2020. The first workshop, held on Oct. 7, focused on “points of pride” in the present-day school district.

At the second workshop, facilitators Dr. Charles Ivory and Dr. Gerald Woehr, of the non-profit Education Information & Resource Center (EIRC), asked attendees to peer into the future.

“Envision a highly successful Fair Haven School District about three years from now,” Ivory told the group. “Then consider what factors are making make it great, and what steps had to be taken to get there.

“This your opportunity to ‘future think’ what you would like to happen for the children of this community.”

Attendees were seated in groups of four to six and asked to individually record their thoughts along the perimeter of a poster. Each group then worked to reach a consensus on five or six key items that were then written in the center of the poster and presented.

“I was very pleased with the attendance at the last meeting, and excited to see even more of you here tonight,” said Ivory. “This is pure community involvement, and to have a consensus emerge from a community for purposes of strategic planning is an incredible process.”

Information recorded through the workshops will be collected and analyzed. A web-based community survey will be used to elicit input as well. A summary report will then be prepared to identify trends and pinpoint recommendations for the strategic planning initiative.

The FAIR HAVEN VISION 2020 Strategic Planning Initiative will allow the district to create a shared vision, focus all of the community’s resources toward common goals, and identify a plan of action that will help achieve those goals, according to school officials.

Event facilitators Ivory and  Woehr are members of a planning team assigned to the Fair Haven School District by the EIRC for consulting services related to strategic planning.

EIRC has worked with numerous school districts throughout New Jersey over the past three years to engage communities in the strategic planning process. Among them are the Kingsway Regional School District, Pitman Public Schools, Greenwich Township Public Schools (Gloucester County), Teaneck Public Schools (Bergen County), Egg Harbor Township Public Schools (Atlantic County), and Lacey Township Public Schools (Ocean County).

Additional workshops are scheduled to take place in the Knollwood School All-Purpose Room on Dec. 1 (Defining Action Steps) and Jan. 21, 2016 (Data Night). Each will begin at 7 p.m. and adhere to a strict 90-minute time-frame. Those wishing to participate are not required to attend all four workshops.

— Edited press release from the Fair Haven School District