DAPHNE, Alabama – The Baldwin County Education Coalition is hosting its first ever Education Summit Nov. 18 in what one spokesperson is calling “an unprecedented opportunity for joining with other education advocates from across our school district and learning about issues that are key to the future of our public schools.”

Denise D'Oliveira, executive director of Supporting Educational Enrichment in Daphne’s Schools (SEEDS), said the countywide summit is a result of earlier groundwork finding that people were interested in bringing in experts from various institutions to discuss innovations in education.

“This is one of the action steps we all agreed we would work on,” said D’Oliveira, “so that educators and citizens, whether they have children in the school or not, can begin to get a better grasp of education issues we are facing.”

Beginning at 8 a.m. at Daphne High School’s Trojan Hall, the summit will include a report on a 2011 Baldwin County comparative practice study and student achievement data by Dr. Joe Adams of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. Completed over the summer, the report was expected to grade the performance of the county’s average $7,500 per-student expenditures. Superintendent Dr. Alan Lee initiated the study.

Adams said the review was similar to others the Council has provided in the state, and they are based on efficiency and effectiveness studies pioneered by Florida's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability for the Florida legislature.

He said the Council would prefer not to call the report an “efficiency audit,” because the term is too technical. Instead, he characterized it as “a review of recognized administrative best practices and a comparative study of administrative costs.” It focuses on non-instructional expenditures within the school system including operation and maintenance services, food services, student transportation services, and general administration services. For comparative purposes, Adams used Mobile, Madison, and Tuscaloosa counties and the City of Dothan.

“We have a list of best practices and we are looking for something that can demonstrate conclusively that the best practices are being performed,” Adams said. “Basically it’s, ‘show us the documents,’ we are looking for a policy manual or letters to the board or reports that things are being followed up on – like archaeologists looking for artifacts.”

The review also includes a look at staffing levels, student performance data in reading and mathematics and a “customer satisfaction survey,” among other things. It then grades the system in its efforts. Adams said the study found that Baldwin County generally performs “very good,” and is not “a major outlier” on anything in particular, but that it does have some room for improvement in operations and maintenance.

Adams said he couldn’t provide specifics ahead of the education summit Nov. 18 but, “one of things that happens when you’ve got a fast growing system, you kind of run away from your costs.” He said that in Alabama, school boards and superintendents cannot be completely accountable for some inefficiency because of proration that makes it difficult to leave reserve accounts alone and tenure laws which prevent rapid reaction to financial or population change.

With the study, Adams said, “you want to lay it all out there and get an independent look at where you stack up. You want to show the community that you are transparent, you are working on things and you want to work on things.”

Also during the summit, Susan Kennedy, manager of Education Funding and Revenues for the Alabama Education Association will speak about unique funding challenges in the state and Dr. Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District in Mooresville, N.C., will discuss “A Digital Renaissance: Putting the World Into Every Child’s Hands.” D’Oliveira said Mooresville has become a national leader in the digital renaissance movement and Edwards will speak to an issue that “we all need a better understanding of the potential for technology and what it can do for students.

“We are going to do more community engagement after the beginning of the year, but the summit is using what we’ve learned to keep the school system transparent and accountable and for seeing what is available for 21st century schools,” she said. The summit will end at 11:30 a.m. and attendees are being asked to register online at the Education Coalition’s new website, www.betterbaldwin.com.