• Local public school partnership led by Baylor receives statewide honor

    superintendents-apr14

    When the city of West was rocked by an explosion last spring, one of the issues that residents faced was how to get kids back in class after their schools had been badly damaged. Less than 12 hours after the blast, a group of Central Texas superintendents were on the case, and by the next Monday morning, classrooms in the Waco area were prepared to host the West students.

    Such swift action wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the Greater Waco Area Superintendents (GWAS) group, a regular gathering of representatives from 10 area school districts. The group, organized in 2007 by Baylor School of Education Dean Jon Engelhardt, meets monthly to foster strong working relationships across the region and to share ideas on improving K-12 public education.

    For their work, the GWAS was recently recognized as an “Exemplary K-12 Partnership” by the Center for Research, Evaluation and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE). Working together, the members of GWAS have adopted a joint vision statement for K-12 public education in Central Texas, joined forces on cross-district initiatives that allow students to pursue academic-vocational goals, and orchestrated the 10 ISD governing boards to adopt common legislative priorities and long-range plans to influence legislative action in support of public education.

    Sic ’em, Central Texas educators and Baylor School of Education!