Arlington Heights SD 25 stakeholders draft ‘portrait’ traits for strategic-plan refresh

Arlington Heights School District 25 convened a special strategic-planning meeting on May 7, 2025, to begin drafting the portraits that will anchor a refresh of the district’s strategic plan. Facilitator Perry Soldwedell led table-based activities with students, staff, parents, building administrators, district staff and board members to produce first-draft “top eight” trait lists for learner, educator and system portraits.

The portraits are intended to sit alongside the district’s existing mission, vision and core values as part of a “preferred future” the district will consider extending beyond the 2025 school year. Perry Soldwedell told participants, “what’s really important about this activity is you are the group that’s going to draft 3 really important documents tonight,” and described the session’s “me-to-we” process: individual selections, table synthesis, then table reporting to the full group.

Participants used a provided list of 21 candidate traits organized into three columns (learning, literacy and life) and followed a rule to select eight items. After table voting and group counting across seven reporting tables, the facilitator summarized the draft results the group produced for each portrait. For the learner portrait, Soldwedell reported that the most frequently selected draft traits included critical and creative thinking; communication and collaboration; problem solving and decision making; foundational literacy (listening, reading, speaking and writing); self-awareness and confidence; empathy and perseverance; flexibility and agility; and responsibility and accountability. For the educator portrait, the group-level draft emphasized items including critical thinking and problem solving; meaningful assessment; relevance and engagement; “learn how to learn” skills; timely differentiated instruction and support; and mindfulness and stress management, among others. For the system portrait, Soldwedell reported the table-level draft included responsibility for student learning; promoting learner voice and choice; ensuring ambitious instruction; relevant professional learning; promoting innovation and real-world relevance; hiring, retaining and developing excellent employees; equity, diversity and inclusivity; and cultivating healthy, positive mindsets.

Meeting participants discussed next steps and the broader engagement plan. Soldwedell said the readiness activities run from May through September, the refresh team will begin work in October and the board review is expected in February. Dr. Kaye (district lead) told the group the drafts from this meeting will be shared with additional stakeholders — including middle school students, staff and parents — as part of the district’s multi-stage vetting process.

The session was expressly billed as a readiness workshop, not a decision meeting. President Scapolato opened the special meeting noting it was designated special because more than two board members were present and that “we will not be taking any official board action during tonight’s meeting.” Procedural items did occur: the board appointed Melissa Bookburger as secretary pro tem for the meeting and later voted to adjourn; the facilitator collected the table results and said he would return a consolidated first draft and proposed definitions for each trait for further review.

The district will use the outputs from this meeting as the starting point for the fall refresh-team work and broader stakeholder review that Soldwedell and district staff outlined. The facilitator said he will draft initial definitions for the selected traits and return them to stakeholders by September for further refinement and for final consideration by the district’s refresh team.