Bibb County's strategic planning meetings wrapped up Monday.
It was the second and final time all 4,200 school district employees and hundreds more invited community members gathered to dream up ways to boost student achievement in Bibb county schools.
Union Elementary principal Emmanuel Frazier said the task at hand was straightforward, but ambitious.
"Teachers, parents, community members are here trying to design a system," he said, "that will provide students the opportunity to compete for any job anywhere in the world or to create a job anywhere in the world. We are trying to give them the skills to compete in the 21st century and beyond."
Attendees came up with mission statements under the umbrella of themes that came out of the September 19 meeting. They wrote them on hundreds of posters and sent them electronically for the school district to categorize and consolidate them for use in the final strategic plan.
"We've talked about engaging instruction," said Frazier. "We've talked about technology, we've talked about how we can implement more home, school, and community involvement to get our kids where we wanna see them, and that's achieving at the highest level."
He said the ideas that came out dealt with systematic changes like year-round school and making technology accessible to kids outside of school. He said they're big ideas that go beyond the status quo. But he said he's confident the ideas scribbled on poster paper will affect real change.
"Steve Jobs, who just passed, was a guy who, if he'd stuck with that box mentality, we would not be using the different technological innovations we have today," he said. "So we're looking at the impossible and finding ways to make it possible."
Superintendent Romain Dallemand said he expects the plan to be finalized by the end of January.