Greeneville City School administrators have started to more closely evaluate what its "stakeholders" require of the school system, according to discussion Tuesday morning during the fall retreat meeting of the Greeneville Board of Education.

At lunchtime Tuesday, the school board ended a two-day retreat at Kathryn W. Leonard Administrative Office.

In addition to "stakeholder" requirements, the board discussed its annual goals and strategies and heard a report on the new academic coaching initiative.

The school system's "stakeholders" include its students, parents, employees, business leaders and other citizens of Greeneville and Greene County, according to Terri Tilson, accountability and improvement supervisor.

Tilson gave a report on the school system's "Balanced Scorecard," a concept that came from the Harvard Business School, she said.

The scorecard "improves strategic planning by measuring what matters" and "translates easily into action plans," she said.

It adds non-academic performance measures to traditional academic measures to give a more "balanced" picture of an organization's performance, she said.

Stakeholders require: excellence in programs; world-class educators; state-of-the-art learning environment; fiscal stability, responsibility and accountablilty; innovation; and communication, she said.

Scorecards will be developed for departments, she said.

For example, the transportation department scorecard would measure timeliness, discipline issues and traffic violations/accidents.

This information would be shared with the bus drivers, she said.

Tilson said she and Dr. Vicki Kirk, assistant director of schools, are working on ways to compile the results in a format that can be easily published for the public.

The city school board reviewed its proposed annual goals and strategies and action plans for those goals.

Goal one is to "Provide excellence in programs."

The strategies for this goal are:

* Provide rigorous curriculum aligned with performance standards.

* Provide excellence in instruction including high quality and up-to-date methods and strategies.

* Offer educational opportunities that provide a broad range of experience.

Action plans for goal one are related to test scores, graduation rates and course offerings.

Goal two is to "Provide world-class educators."

The strategies for this goal are:

* Recruit world-class educators.

* Develop world-class educators through capacity building professional development.

* Retain world-class educators.

Action plans for goal two are related to teacher demographics, incentives, training and employee surveys.

Goal three is to "Provide a state-of-the-art learning environment.

The strategies for this goal are:

* Provide well-maintained facilities.

* Provide a safe teaching and learning environment.

* Provide appropriate access to current technologies for system operations and instruction programs.

Action plans for goal three are related to cleanliness and maintenance of facilities, transportation services, facility needs for instructional programming space, safety plans and training, mobile computing and other technology.

Goal four is to "Maintain fiscal stability, responsibility and accountability."

The strategies for this goal are:

* Focus expenditures on instruction.

* Develop and maintain sound fiscal practices.

* Enhance benefits for employees.

Action plans for goal four are related to audit recommendations, monthly reviews of the annual budget, salary comparisons and employee satisfaction surveys.

Goal five, a proposed new goal this year, is to "Cultivate family and community engagement."

It would replace a goal to "Engage in explorations and innovations research," according to Dr. Lyle Ailshie, director of schools.

The strategies for the new goal five are:

* Expand avenues of two-way communication.

* Provide opportunities for meaningful engagement.

Action plans for goal five are related to feedback from schools and families.

Lisa Stephens, business and finance supervisor, gave a budget report.

She reported a potential savings by Greeneville's school system of $97,601 for utilities and a potential savings of at least $10,461 for fuel.

These savings, she said, will help offset expected reductions in local tax revenue.

Stephens also led discussion about the school system's vending contract. Ten years ago, she said, the school system entered a contract with Pepsi, which will expire on June 30, 2010.

The school system will go through a bidding process, she said, noting that she would like to organize a team to oversee the process.

One consideration, she noted, is the decrease in vending revenues since the implementation of the wellness program, which cut soft drinks.

Before the wellness program, the school system sold $46,226 in vending machine products in 2005-06, she said.

After the wellness program began, the school system sold $19,137 in 2006-07, $16, 200 in 2007-08 and $16, 887 in 2008-09, she said.

Ailshie said the nutritional requirements at elementary and middle school levels can be adjusted to allow more variety in vending machine sales.

Board member Dr. Mark Patterson recommended asking the students for their preferences while considering nutritional value of the vending products.

He said the school system is not in the vending business, and the nutritional value should not be compromised.

Patterson emphasized the epidemic of childhood obesity and the need to ensure that students eat and drink healthy products.

The board also heard an explanation from Dr. Kirk about changes on this year's Report Card from the Tennessee Department of Education, which previously were reported upon in this newspaper.