Fisher unveils school district’s new ‘problem-solving’ vision

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with “engage, empower and inspire.”

Charles City Superintendent of Schools Mike Fisher just wants the district to have a vision that’s a little more inspiring — to both students and teachers.

“A vision statement is a picture of the future that inspires passion. It should state a clear destination,” Fisher explained to the Charles City School District Board of Directors on Monday.

“Our current vision statement is ‘engage, empower and inspire,’ and I’ve really spent a lot of time wrestling with that and trying to determine exactly what that is. It just doesn’t paint a clear picture.” he said.

After a lot of work with a team of people — including consultations with 40 different teachers-leaders — Fisher rolled out the district’s new vision statement to teachers and support staff last week.

Fisher said the new vision was, “Creating compassionate, competent problem-solvers.”

“We want kids that are compassionate, competent, smart and willing to go out and make the world a better place by solving problems,” Fisher said. “We believe that is a very clear picture of what we want to do.”

Fisher added that the emphasis on creativity, compassion and competence is more than just some catchy, clever alliteration.

“Creating is just what we do as educators, and as our society becomes more divided and more tribal, we have to continue to teach our kids that compassion is an important thing,” Fisher said. “Regardless of if you disagree with someone, there still can be compassion for them as a human being.”

Fisher said that competence speaks to test scores and the district’s core academics — things he realizes Charles City needs to address.

“Reading, writing, math, literacy, numeracy — these things are absolutely fundamental,” he said. “We have to be able to teach kids these basic functions and core content.”

Fisher said that developing problem-solving skills in students is a constant need in society, but becomes more apparent during times of crisis, such as the current COVID-19 situation.

“It’s not enough to just know, it’s not enough to just have the knowledge,” Fisher said. “It’s not enough to just be compassionate and really smart, you have to do something with it. This is what we need more of in our society, more people to solve problems.”

Fisher said groups of teachers are now meeting to determine the best practices to create compassionate problem-solvers as well as transcend some of the barriers in learning right now.

“We need to rethink how we do learning,” Fisher said. “We’re still babysitting another generation’s notion of schooling.”

He said the “2020 Vision Plan” was initially a three-year plan, but he put the plan “on accelerate” for the next three months. He said that the district wasn’t charging into the changes recklessly, but was being thoughtful and methodical.

“How we view learning right now is not good enough for our kids, and we know that,” Fisher said. “Our test scores, our post-secondary placement and our conversations with community, staff and alumni shows us that.”

At a school board meeting in April, Fisher said he wants a plan that includes learning models, approaches and strategies that fit the district’s mission and core values. He said the plan needs to transcend situations like COVID-19, snow days, and other potential obstructions to teaching and learning.

“We’ve realized that vision was one of the pieces that’s still foggy for us as a district,” Fisher said. “As we evaluate where we are as a school district, if you don’t have a clear picture of the future, how do you know where you’re going?”

Fisher stressed that this was not just a reaction to the COVID-19 situation.

“COVID has exposed that a little bit more, but this existed before COVID,” Fisher said. “I want our learning to be absolutely fabulous and over-the-top-mind-blowing in person, but if we have to go online or remote, it’s still really, really good.”

School board member Janiece Bergland told Fisher Monday that she thought the new vision statement brought “more focus,” while board Vice-President Missy Freund said she liked the emphasis on both compassion and on problem-solving skills.

“I like what we’ve come up with,” Freund said. “We have a clearer vision of what we need for our students and our family.”