Moving towards Common Ground

At the November 19th meeting, the DWMP steering committee saw the initial results of the 2nd Community Dialogue and the accompanying on-line survey. (Details will soon be available: here)

While consensus appears to be emerging around some issues (the K-5 elementary school configuration, and the availability of pre-K education for "all parents who have an interest" were two ideas that have broad support), what I found intriguing were the differences between the opinions of those who participated in the community dialogue, and the 935 citizens (that's a good number) who responded to the on-line questionnaire.

For example, while both groups favored locating the Career and Technical Center on the main high school campus (as it currently is), the level of support for this idea was significantly higher among those who personally attended the dialogue.

One possible explanation for the difference is that we're hearing from two different populations. As one might expect, a greater proportion of educators and parents of school-age children were represented at the dialogue, whereas those who responded on-line better reflected the general population - many of whom lack a direct, personal connection to the schools. (These citizens are sometimes affectionately referred to as "taxpayers.")

Another explanation is that the opportunity to have a conversation with people of differing perspectives informs and impacts one's one opinion, as I mentioned in my last post.

The good news is that we don't need to figure out how to appropriately "weight" these different inputs. In the end, we'll have to find the common ground among all of the community's constituencies.

(As an aside, I wonder if the level of support for pre-K facilities will be as high when the community sees the price tag, but that's a conversation for another day – probably in February.)

90% of Citizenship is "Showing Up"

During Monday's discussion of the District Wide Master Facilities Plan (in particular, the Community Dialogue that was held November 6th), several board members commented on the added value that comes from personally attending the community meetings, as opposed to simply responding to the questions on-line. (Although everyone is certainly encouraged to do that, here: the deadline is 8 a.m., Thursday, Nov.13th.)

I'm also posting this on the PIF blog, because it goes to the heart of the Public Issues Forum philosophy: it is in hearing the perspective of citizens who see the issue differently - and understanding why they see it differently - that is the foundation for finding the common ground on difficult and sometimes contentious community problems.

As was also mentioned during the board discussion, when people sit down and talk face-to-face, and feel that their voice has been heard, they tend to be less defensive of their own position, and therefore, more open-minded.

I have long believed that voting - although clearly important - is only a small part of citizenship. Part of being a citizen is “being there”, interacting with other citizens.