BY MICHELLE MILLER
STAFF WRITER

Otsego-Northern Catskills BOCES Superintendent Nicholas Savin was at last week’s Milford Central School board of education meeting to discuss a strategic plan that will focus on long-term educational planning.

BOCES hosted a forum on Dec. 1 to discuss the common issues confronting its component districts and to facilitate discussions among districts about how best to cooperate to maintain educational opportunities and services in extremely difficult financial conditions.

Savin said the plan is to continue with the forums in hopes they will become helpful to all boards of education. We have a significant issue, supporting schools through aid, because of the fiscal stress that the state is experiencing, said Savin, who said he does not see the problem going away for several years.

Savin said he believes it is important to have opportunities within the region to at least have conversations about issues districts are and will be facing.

Savin said he is appreciative of the attendance and outreach that has already been shown.

`` I think it speaks well about all the people that we have that are trying to assist our component schools,’’ he said.

There have been requests to be able to have more representatives attend the forums so in order to meet that request, we have scheduled the next meeting at the Oneonta High School, said Savin.

The forum will be held on Feb. 8. Savin said the forums are a place for district representatives to express and share concerns anorganization might have when addressing the future.

We want to address these concerns and that is why the BOCES board of education will be engaging in a strategic plan, he said.

According to Savin, the BOCES BOE wants to involve all their constituents and at some point will engage the superintendents, staff and students while trying to develop some sort of database of concerns, directions and things people feel ought to at least be developed and discussed.

The timeline, we hope, is to have a plan by sometime this spring, said Savin. The intent is to have some sort of draft by the summer, he added. The goal is to provide a draft to district superintendents to be shown to members of boards of education so it can be discussed and adjusted if needed before adopting the plan, said Savin.

Milford Superintendent Peter Livhsin said he thought it would be good to have an outside facilitator. Savin agreed, and said a few names have been discussed and he anticipates having a facilitator step in at some point.

Board of education President Tom Brennan said while everyone is talking about consolidation and shared service, he believes BOCES should be the consolidation entity and it is important that it leads all its component districts through it. He said he feels confident, that because Savin is from the area and comes from a BOCES district, that Savin is and will be able to understand concerns of local districts.

``I think we are all optimistic and excited to see what is to come,’’ said Brennan. Vice-President Susan Ward said she believes having a strategic plan is a good beginning. She said if the intention is to do the analysis internally at BOCES and to involve the school districts, she would think a good place to start in order for school districts to give feedback is to have BOCES conduct its own internal assessment of its weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats to hand out to school districts to take a look at.

Ward said she thinks local districts need to be on the forefront of innovation and believes if BOCES and the rural school districts work together, something creative, new and exciting can be formed. Ward said she recently represented MCS’s education foundation at a state of entrepreneurship address in Washington. There, she said, she learned that under the Obama administration an office has been set up for entrepreneurship innovation for the first time. She said a lot of dollars are being poured into it because the thinking is the economy will be rebuilt on entrepreneurship and innovation, which is basically how this country began.

Ward said MCS has begun its own entrepreneurship education and she thinks BOCES should be looking at programs that will help create jobs and innovation as well.

``We need to ask what’s the vision for our rural districts going forward and how are our students going to compete globally because that’s where it is at,’’ said Ward.

Ward said rural school districts should be in front of the curve not behind the curve in order to survive. School districts need to be thinking about supply and demand.

``We need to anticipate where the needs are going to be,’’ she said.

Board member Paul Beisler said he would like to see some kind of assurance that students graduating from BOCES are ready to go to work.

``I think that is really critical,’’ he said.

Livshin said perhaps BOCES should look into their programs and think about bringing some 21st century programs such as phlebotics so students become more employable.

Livshin said, ``Rest assured, you have the right man for the job.’’ He said Savin has been preaching the concerns being expressed for years. ``He believes in exactly what you are saying,’’ said Livshin.

Savin, who took over as BOCES superintendent this school-year, said he did not intend to walk into his role with such constraints, which have been consuming most of his time. But he said he has no desire to stop fighting for his mission to have students ready for the rest of lives and turning them into life-long learners even in bad times.

``Some steps at first might have to be smaller than I was envisioning, but I do feel for what school superintendents are having to deal with,’’ said Savin.

``It is going to take time to heal,’’ added Savin, who said innovation and investments will be needed to try and prevent the free fall.

Time this year will mostly be spent on stopping the free fall and determining what caused it, said Savin. ``This is going to be a pretty intensive process and will work much like the making of a quilt _ done in patches,’’ he said.