Blue Door Consulting Resigns

In a letter to Superintendent Ron Heilmann, Jr, Blue Door Consulting resigned as OASD's PR firm effective November 15, 2007.



Reasons cited for the abrupt departure were that they have too much business to devote any more time to OASD. They also stated that their relationship with OASD was supposed to conclude in March and then in October. "However, with no end in sight, we no longer have the capacity to support this project, given the demands of our growing client base." Brenda Haines and Heidi Strand have agreed to help with a smooth transition and to finish two projects "unrelated to the facilities planning." They have also volunteered to be members of the OASD Public Relations Steering Committee.



In the 1+ year, Blue Door Consulting has done much for the district though some could argue they have actually accomplished very little. Communication is still a huge issue in this district. However, it has improved and something is better than nothing. Brenda Haines contributed many, many hours of her time to help create the many scenarios that have since been scrapped for one reason or another by the BOE and community.



I cannot say that this was a total loss for Brenda or the community. While PMP relied on a few structured and arguably orchestrated public forums, each scenario brought forward more and more community members who gave perspectives not thought about in isolated meetings. For instance, the PMP report claims to have identified community values. For the most part, this is true. However, some values were slightly off and others were totally far from what the community has raised in the last several months. Even in committees, there were things we were willing to consider like splitting schools as they fed through the system, that were horribly off from what the community has told us they really value: keeping peer groups together.



While this has become a long, drawn out process, we are closer to a decision. Had we not gone through all of this, our community could have been left with a dry, unfeeling plan based solely on PMP's report and based only partially on actual community values. In a way, we are fortunate as a community to have had so many opportunities to speak our minds to the BOE. We are still fortunate enough to be able to address our concerns to the BOE before all of this is concluded.



Are we better off after spending approximately $140,000 on Blue Door Consulting's PR services? Is the BOE finally moving forward and is this movement in the best interest of the entire district? What can we expect from the BOE and the community with each presentation of the remaining four committees? Is there a plan that the majority of the community could support with a referendum?