When she joined Kent County Public Schools on July 1, 2025, Dr. Mary Boswell-McComas was set to take on a daunting challenge as the new superintendent.

She jumped right in, with a focus on preparing a new five-year strategic plan for the school system. To put her plan together, she first needed to learn about the community and what it wants for its schools system.

Throughout the summer and fall, Dr. McComas met with Kent County Public Schools’ teachers, staff and administrators; visited local business leaders, met with government officials; and introduced herself to as many people as possible.

Dr. McComas also sought to formalize many of her discussions with a series of public forums. The five Community Conversations were held at each school throughout October and November.

The sessions utilized the World Café model. Participants sat in groups at tables with a facilitator and shared their thoughts on a particular topic affecting Kent County Public Schools.

The groups were randomly seated. When it was time to rotate tables, participants were encouraged to join a different group of people.

The topics discussed were:

Each time a new group was seated at a table, they received a different question than the previous group. This ensured that conversations ran deeper than lists of wishes and complaints, to include more vision- and solution-based discussions.