At the end of his first full month as interim superintendent of the Columbus Municipal School District, Dennis Dupree is putting together a discussion panel to hear and address concerns about the district.
The discussions have been dubbed as a “superintendent’s roundtable,” and Dupree described them as working lunches.
“Calling this group a ‘roundtable’ is intentional because the format will allow us to move around the room allowing all members a chance to speak if they desire,” Dupree said in an email to The Dispatch. “We want the structure to be somewhat informal so members will become comfortable speaking about their ideas, concerns, and suggestions for how we can improve.”
Dupree intends to have the meetings start this month, and they will be held at 11:30 a.m. at Brandon Central Services. The meetings will be roughly an hour long, and there will be a printed agenda outlining what is intended to be covered during the meetings.
The meetings will be held monthly and the day of the week will be decided once all of the members come together to determine what works best for them. Anyone is welcome to join, but Dupree asks that those joining commit to coming to the meetings unless prohibited by an emergency.
“It is important for our district to have members of the community involved,” Dupree said. “The formation of the roundtable, which we hope will be a very diverse group, is one way we ensure we hear different perspectives and that we reach different segments of the community that we might not otherwise.”
The idea of a roundtable might be a new one for the district, but not for Dupree, who retired in 2019 but is serving as CMSD’s interim superintendent. He said prior to retirement he had a superintendent roundtable in the Clarksville School District, and the Mississippi Department of Education hosts a discussion similar to the roundtables called “P-16 Council.”
He said he’s always had great success from the roundtable discussions.
“I would term the success level as very successful,” Dupree said. “The community was always abreast of what we were doing. They knew we operated transparently and that my office had an open-door policy. They quickly learned that we would be accessible and would listen, that we would be fair and consistent, and that we were sincere about really wanting parent involvement and community engagement. Not every member of the roundtable was a parent (though some were). All were community members: some owned businesses and they paid taxes to support our schools; some were ministers, and so on.”
For those interested in taking part in the superintendent’s roundtable, contact Velma Woodard at the CMSD central office by calling 662-241-7400.
Though Dupree is serving on an interim basis, he hopes when the CMSD Board of Trustees chooses a permanent superintendent community engagement will continue.
“Because I am a permanent resident of this community, I have a vested interest in this school district’s success,” Dupree said. “So I do not look at myself as merely a CMSD employee, but as someone who should do their part to make things better for our children. … I would hope that my successor sees fit to continue the concept of engagement and involvement even if they change the name of the group. From my perspective, you cannot have too much family and community engagement. If you read any of the educational research about common characteristics of the most successful school districts, you will find that high levels of community and parent engagement are both included on the list.”
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