NATCHEZ — The hope of a local education committee is that plans developing from meetings with community leaders engage attendees to work alongside those most directly affected by public school education.

The Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce Education Committee met Monday evening with all members of the Natchez-Adams School Board and some representatives of the Natchez Board of Aldermen and Natchez Inc.

Members of the Adams County Board of Supervisors were not in attendance.

Chamber president and education committee member Debbie Hudson said the group’s short-term goals include painting at NASD school buildings and landscaping.

“The really big emphasis was that (the goal) wasn’t just to get our group to do work, but to (involve) teachers, parents, and children (of NASD), so they would all take ownership,” Hudson said.

Hudson said the group should soon have a specific plan to assign projects to certain committee members. She also said teachers and principals would be polled to discover where improvements are needed.

“We want everybody’s buy in to how we are doing things,” she said.

NASD School Board President Wayne Barnett said hearing the opinions and input from other community leaders about the public schools helps the school board to better understand the community’s concerns about the district.

“A lot of the decisions (about NASD) are ours to make…but at the same token, we need to know what other people are saying,” Barnett said.

“We don’t know it all, and we know we don’t know it all. But we’re all willing to listen.”

Hudson said the group also discussed some long-term goals, including the drafting of a strategic plan. However, Barnett said he believes the creation of a strategic plan should be the job of the new superintendent, when he or she is hired.

Barnett said more community input from the general public about hiring a new superintendent will be helpful for the board when they make their decision. The public will get that chance to voice their input at a Nov. 1 meeting.

Hudson said one of the biggest advantages of the group meetings is allowing each different group to become acquainted with each other to forge better working relationships

“(Some leaders) were names before, now they are faces that can sit down and talk,” Hudson said.