The community of Wellington was ready to redesign its public schools before the state school board picked it as one of the “Mercury Seven” pilot communities in a statewide program for school redesign.
This was the opening message of a talk Tuesday evening on the subject of school redesign by Mark Whitener, Superintendent of USD 353 at Wellington. Whitener spoke at the Winfield High School cafeteria.
Conversations about redesign had been going on for a year before the Wellington community applied for the statewide program, said Whitener, a former Ark City Middle School principal.
Business, industry, teachers, parents and students were involved in the conversations. Some 800 people responded to a survey asking about the future of the community’s schools. “We asked ourselves ‘What direction should the district go?’”
(Read more: The Arkansas City Traveler)