Bibb County school Supt. Romain Dallemand is headed to Belgium next week to tout his success in drawing up his "Macon Miracle" plan.
He and two other Bibb County school officials are scheduled to speak next Thursday at the 2012 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Ghent.
Their talk is titled: "The Macon Miracle: Connecting Strengths, Reinventing Education, Helping Children Flourish."
Dallemand used facilitators from the Las Vegas-based Center for Appreciative Inquiry in last year's public sessions that led up to development of his strategic plan. The center's motto is "Facilitating Positive Change in Human Systems since 1989."
Dallemand's 170-point strategic plan caused a firestorm of controversy after he announced details in February. Students and parents organized marches and petition drives against the plan.
The school board approved the plan, by a 5-3 vote, after Dallemand dropped several of the more controversial points, such as changes in the school day and plans to close up to a dozen schools.
According to its web site, Dallemand, Judy Godfrey, the district's director of professional learning, and Susanne Griffin-Zeibart, the district's deputy superintendent of school improvement and redesign, will speak next week in Ghent, along with two officials from the Center for Appreciative Inquiry.
Dallemand could not be reached for comment Wednesday. School spokeswoman Stephanie Hartley could not immediately say how long the three school officials would be out of town or what the trip would cost.
She referred questions about the trip to school board attorney Randy Howard, who could not be reached for comment.
But Macon Republican activist Bill Knowles shared an email from Howard that the school district had paid registration fees for the three Bibb employees. Howard wrote that no further records on the trip's cost were available.
"A small city in rural southern Georgia, USA has pulled off the largest face-to-face Appreciative Inquiry summit in the world. This community, faced with a 44.6% graduation rate and a devastating drop-out rate, decided to come together, identify their strengths, and design an education system that will graduate 100% of its students by the year 2020. More than 4,300 people attended the Bibb County School District's (i.e., BCSD) Appreciative Inquiry Summits to participate in the development of a comprehensive Strategic Plan designed to ensure each student "demonstrates strength of character and is college ready."Workshop participants will learn how this large-scale summit was organized, what emerged from the two days, and where BCSD is headed next. In addition, they will engage in conversations around AI and strength-based schools, positive school culture and innovative practices in teaching and learning from around the world. Please join us to discuss positive, innovations in teaching and learning."
Next week's conference celebrates the philosophy of "Appreciate Inquiry" and its website defines its basic principle as: "A person, an organization or a larger system will excel only by knowing and amplifying strengths, never by fixing weaknesses."
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