Cooperative planning for rural job creation.

Rural school districts across the country have seen a serious loss of employment opportunities for families in their communities. Even when jobs exist, they are often low-level service jobs that do not provide wages that encourage young people to grow roots. When good jobs are available, often those jobs are outsourced to other low-wage areas, including foreign countries.

In northeastern Wisconsin, schools are working together on a program with other public and private groups to turn around these losing demographics.

The job losses have hit hard in the area served by my intermediate educational agency. Local woodworking factories have closed. Once-solid manufacturing operations have closed their doors forever.

Rather than chasing those few out-of-town businesses looking for a new home, our agency joined with several local entities, large and small, to build a community partnership that now has led to an award-winning cooperative home-building program. We are an area partnership of schools, government and local businesses with education playing a central role.

The group of public and private representatives mapped out several tasks. We decided to build a strong community council focusing on job development. We pooled our limited capital to better support the plan. Because schools are a resource for community education and the place where potential employees can be trained, they had a strong place at the table.

Cooperative job development requires building a systematic planning and monitoring of processes. Keeping our high-achieving students at home or providing reasons for them to return after college or military commitments becomes central to building a viable community. Without a plan for accomplishing this, rural schools lose their most important resource for their survival--he children of returning students.

A Checkpoint Process

The R-NEW (Rural-NorthEast Wisconsin) approach involved several partners. Information gatherers carried out surveys for data about local jobs, available resources, potential levels of participation, parent and community concerns and potential partners to be addressed in the initial stages of the plan. Another important partner was the county economic development professionals. They provided access to federal, state, regional and local resources, including the borrowing needed to build the houses.

Small and large employers bought into our plan. Local school boards joined in the partnership, which ensured we would have a wide array of student and family participants as well as local buy-in to the curriculum. Participation of local government officials ensured it was politically viable.

A management team, which included the superintendents, determined roles and responsibilities, devised cooperative activities and evaluated each step in the process.

Checkpoints on the road to successful implementation included several measures. First, we invited all stakeholders to a meeting early in the process, which helped identify possible issues before they became insolvable. Making contact with statewide business groups provided an imprint of legitimacy on what for this part of the state was a novel concept. It also resulted in equipment donations from a major Wisconsin tool maker.

We made every effort to keep all parties in the communication loop through electronic mail and newsletters. Developing a list of intermediate targets and schedules allowed all parties, including the students, to know how they were doing in regard to goal completion.

Positive Outcomes

Cooperative planning for workers, capital and customers raises community awareness and expectations. Facilitating economic growth keeps good students at home or brings them back to the community to provide a solid base of strong families. Such systems also provide an attractive milieu for new development and provide resources in our rural communities for growth.

The process has led to several measurable outcomes. One home has been built and a second is under construction. More than 30 male and female students of wide-ranging abilities have completed the program. Of the group, four were dropouts who returned through this program and stayed in school through graduation.

The schools attracted several state-level honors and lots of local press coverage. Educators made it a point to share the spotlight with their communities. This has led to better relationships among the communities, the schools and the businesses.

Robert Kellogg is the administrator of the Cooperative Educational Service Agency 8, P.O. Box 320, Gillett, WI 54124. E-mail: [e-mail]