The District Strategic Planning Committee (known as the DSPC) of the  State Center Community College District, charged recommending the district’s strategic plan to the Board of Trustees, met for the first time on Friday and set out its calendar for the rest of the 2011-2012 school year.

Currently, the DSPC, which replaces the strategic planning workgroup, is in its second of six phases, which focuses on conducting a charrette — a collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem —  with the district’s various stakeholders on March 1.

The charrette will review the expiring strategic plan which was submitted and approved in 2008 as well as evaluate the various goals and objectives of the soon-to-be developed strategic plan.

On March 2, committee members will meet with the College Brain Trust, a private educational consulting firm, to review the input of the district’s various constituencies from the charrette process.

Throughout their meeting on Friday, members of the strategic planning committee focused on maintaining open communications with their constituents, a concern raised by the ACCJC evaluation team.

“Representatives are the main communication vehicles between your constituencies,” Jothany Blackwood, de facto committee chair and Dean of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, said.

Committee member and interim Dean of Instruction and Technology at Willow International, Tom Mester recommended that the committee members report all correspondence with their constituents as “evidence for accreditation.”

The DSPC meeting is a step by Fresno City College and SCCCD to start the process to address the concerns addressed by the evaluation team in its recently-released report. Fresno City College received a second accreditation warning from the Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges in early February. Both Fresno City College and Reedley College received warnings related to failures in the district’s integrated planning.

During an editorial board meeting with The Rampage on Feb. 10, Chancellor Deborah Blue said that the district’s first step in addressing the commission’s warning is to complete its update of the district strategic plan.

The move to open up communications with constituents is not limited to the district. Fresno City College’s Associated Student Government is working toward keeping open communications with students and other organizations across campus.

“ASG has taken the proper steps necessary to strengthen the communication between all constituent groups and the district by being committed to having senators and senators-at-large serving on campus committees,” ASG President, Cindy Quiralte, said.

The first draft of the 2012-2016 strategic plan is being written by the consultant group, the College Brain Trust, will be released by the end of March. The strategic plan committee is slated to review the first draft of the strategic plan by March 30, as part of its third phase.

The current timeline provided to members of the DSPC shows that the College Brain Trust consultants will have three revisions: one that will be released in mid-April, another in early May and the final draft by June.

Chancellor Blue said that after the district adopts its new 4-year strategic plan, the campuses will begin the process of drafting their individual strategic plans by the end of the 2012-2013 school year.