Greenville ISD recently invited over forty-five educators, community officials and business representatives to participate in the Institute for Alternative Futures, a two-day training that tasked the group with developing educational scenarios projected out to 2030. Dr. Clement Bezold and Mr. Willis Goldbeck, two international futurist experts, developed the foresight training over three decades to train education, government and corporate executives. The training provided strategies for future forecasting and honed skills to foresee future scenarios. 

Utilizing environmental scanning, forecasts, scenarios, vision, and audacious goals, the group took a systematic approach to creating visions and preferable futures for Greenville ISD. Processing contributions from community members and educational professionals allowed the group to develop preferred future scenarios.

Don Jefferies, Greenville ISD Superintendent stated, “Developing complex and comprehensive preferred futures will aid Greenville ISD in future strategic planning. The visionary scenarios developed by the group provided opportunity for meaningful contributions from the community.”

The pace of change is accelerating. Doubling times for information technology are in the range of every twelve to twenty-four months, which means in the next twenty-five years some technologies could advance almost a million fold. “To be proactive in the marketplace and most responsibly educate our children, we initiated this training to develop plausible futures. The visionary scenarios, developed by a cross-section of our community, will help us as we continually anticipate change and the educational needs and scenarios based on this change.”

Greg Sims, President and CEO of the Greenville Board of Development, said of his involvement with the training, “Forecasting scenarios and possibilities for Greenville ISD while simultaneously envisioning the future of economic development in Greenville was beneficial on many levels. The partnership and resource sharing potentials were highlighted with the Board of Development offering input regarding the types of certifications GISD students could be offered which assists with real world employment outcome for our most valuable future resource, our students."  

By analyzing education within the broader lens of the Greenville community, the school district will be able to develop more global curriculum, proactively plan for technology purchases and design certification programs relevant to local industry needs.