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Superintendent presents district strategic-plan update; enrollment, teacher retention lag targets
Summary
Superintendent Williams briefed the Colleton County School Board committee on the district's strategic plan, reporting declines in enrollment and teacher-retention short of five-year goals while showing gains in some stakeholder-survey measures.
Superintendent Williams told the Colleton County School District Committee of the Whole on April 8 that the district's strategic plan (2021—2026) will be submitted as an annual update to the state and asked the board to consider final approval at the April 22 meeting.
The presentation outlined four performance areas in the plan—district priority (enrollment), school climate, student achievement and teacher/administrator quality. "Strategic plans are developed every 5 years and they are updated annually as required by South Carolina state law," Williams said, and noted the district must send updates to the state department by April 30 for plans effective July 1.
Why it matters: the plan sets multi-year targets used for local planning and state reporting. Williams said the board will be asked to approve the update on April 22 so the district can meet the state submission deadline.
Key data Williams presented show the district has not met its enrollment targets. The plan set a goal to increase enrollment by 5% annually; the baseline in 2021 was 4,985 students and the 2023-24 target was 5,085. Williams reported current enrollment of 4,669 students and said the district is continuing work on the strategies listed in the plan.
On school-climate measures, Williams showed increases in teacher and parent survey satisfaction since the 2021 baseline: teacher satisfaction with the learning environment rose from 74.4% (2021) to 90.2% (2023-24); parent satisfaction with learning environment rose from 74.6% to 80.2%. Student-survey measures were lower: student satisfaction with the learning environment fell from 79.9% (2021) to 77.2% (2023-24), Williams said.
Student achievement figures in Williams' slides showed modest changes year to year: the percent of students meeting the achievement indicator cited on the district report card moved from 31.5% (2022-23) to 32.2% (2023-24) in the measures Williams displayed; mathematics moved from 14.4% to 17.7% across the same span. Williams said additional indicators and action steps are embedded in the full plan document.
On teacher and administrator quality, Williams noted the district's retention-rate goal was to increase from 81.8% to 95%. She reported a teacher-return rate of 85.5% in the plan's baseline year and 76.8% for 2023-24, and confirmed the retention figure includes educators who retired.
Board members asked clarifying questions about retention figures and the district's next steps. Williams thanked staff in curriculum and instruction for assembling the plan and reiterated the board would see the plan again at its April 22 meeting for approval.
Ending: Williams concluded the overview by saying this is the district's final annual update before a new five-year plan will be developed for 2026-27.
