NORWICH – The Norwich City School Board apparently wants to turn over a new leaf.

In an effort to become more focused as a team on the district’s pressing issues, board members heard a presentation from a representative of the New York State School Board Association Tuesday night outlining a program that assists school boards.

NYSSBA Executive Director Tim Kremer and Bob McClure, superintendent-at-large with the New York State Council of School Superintendents, painted a picture of how the cooperative program could help Norwich move forward.

“What we are trying to do here is create a team,” said Kremer, as he laid out the details of the process by which an experienced team of superintendents and NYSSBA staff would analyze the local community and provide an action plan to focus the board on the district’s current needs.

The three-day site visit would include phone and personal interviews with school stakeholders such as teachers, parents and students. Some initial feedback would be provided to the district’s leadership immediately and over the course of a few weeks, with input from the board. A final report would be generated.

The report would not be a strategic plan, clarified Kremer, but a development tool aimed at “improving the effectiveness of [the] school district organization.

“It’s action,” he said. “It’s very relevant and timely.”

The district benefits not only from the experience of the team selected to do the study, but also from the very fact that they are an unbiased third party. “There is a level of objectivity,” said Kremer. “[The team] doesn’t have a vested interest. It doesn’t have a political interest.”

Community buy-in is important. “You have to build trust,” said McClure, who described the process as public, healthy and transparent.