...we'll listen to what they have to tell us
Yes, it is good to have them speak first. If asked to speak first, you may simply wish to ask why they called the meeting, and ask for introductions of all who are present. You may wish to take notes.
Great advice from other posters:
Okay-- if they say something unexpected (distinct possibility, right, since they've left you in the dark)--
be noncommittal.
"Hmm. That's interesting. We will need to consider this. Can we follow up in a week?" ... At this point, you don't even know for sure who is invited to this meeting-- whether it involves corporate/national or just local administrators...
I have been to more than a few school meetings where something was said or a direction was taken that caught me by suprise and I wasn't prepared for. My choice has always been to do my best to not react, leave any potential emotion out of it, and simply say "This is new information" (or "unexpected information"). I will take some time to think it over (you can say a week or ten days or two days or whatever if you want to, or just say "some time") and then I'll be in touch."
I wouldn't give any answers at the actual meeting or put anything else out there for the school...
Personally, in that situation, I would listen to what they have to say, and then, if necessary ask for another meeting at a later date in order to properly prepare my response. I would not let them push me into a decision at that meeting, without time to think about it... I would tell them as little as possible about your plans while you are at the meeting.
We've had similar meetings and our message was always, "We want to make this work and we don't want to have to leave the school, so what can we do?" Your message might be "We don't want to involve the district, so we can we do?"
You may also wish to write a friendly e-mail summarizing the meeting, areas of agreement, timeframes, decisions deferred, date/time of any follow-up meeting, etc?
