LOXLEY, Ala. – Baldwin County Schools Superintendent Alan Lee called the Board of Education meeting in Loxley ‘historic” as the Yes We Can Baldwin Co-Owned Strategic Plan was presented during the BOE work session on Tuesday.

Suellen Brazil and Denise D’Olivera presented the plan before Board members on Tuesday with plans to bring the plan up for adoption at Thursday’s regular monthly Board meeting Thursday in Bay Minette.

“We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to this proposal,” Brazil said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We know now what people want from their educational system and first and foremost what they want is a higher standard.”

The plan is the culmination of over a year’s work beginning in March of 2010 when Baldwin voters passed an emergency 1-cent sales takes for schools. Over the next seven months, Baldwin County Education Coalition members representing seven local education foundations, conducted 85 Yes We Can Baldwin Community Conversations in homes, churches and community centers across the county, attended by over 1,300 residents.

The Coalition completed the Yes We Can Community Agreement which was brought to the Board for adoption on Dec. 16 and a 120-member Strategic Planning Task Force met over four evenings in February and March to develop objectives and action steps.

The Co-Owned Strategic Plan draft was completed in May and opened for public comments in June and July, resulting in a final plan brought to the Board for approval.

“This has been a long road from this time last year going around with flip charts to seeing this plan come to fruition,” D’Olivera said Tuesday. “What we’ve accomplished I believe is a solid fundamental plan for our educational system.”

The plan includes five target areas, funding, data driven accountability, leadership, college and workforce ready and communications.

“When I came to this Board there was one foundation and it was so very separate,” said Tracy Roberts. “Parents of one school had no interest in what happened at other schools. Now each area has its own foundation and I feel like everyone is together. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for all their hard work.”

In other business, Brazil and Dr. Pam Henson presented a plan before the Board to reconfigure the elementary school system in Baldwin County, which would, in part, convert all elementary schools in Baldwin County to K-6.

“This is not something we’re asking the Board to act on right away,” Lee told Board members Tuesday. “It’s just something we’re asking you to look at and consider.”

Jean McCutchen, director of Business and Finance, also presented a financial update to Board members at Tuesday’s meeting which included revenue figures through June.

Lee also went through a rundown of Thursday’s agenda with little discussion of individual items.