Willamette Education Service District is launching a year‑long strategic‑planning process for the Silver Falls School District, the ESD team told the school board at a work session. The ESD said the work will include a comprehensive data analysis, broad stakeholder engagement and an action plan with measurable goals to help the district prioritize budgeting and operations.

The ESD is piloting the process with Silver Falls and described a four‑quarter timeline running from immediate data analysis through a final review in April. "By the way, I'm Colleen Henry. I'm the data systems coordinator from Willamette ESD," Henry told the board as she summarized the approach. Ella Taylor, the ESD's chief research officer, said the process is intended to be timely and iterative: "We do divided this into 4 quarters, and you can see what they are. The first quarter is what we are in right now, and it's really the data analysis, stakeholder engagement, and goal setting quarter."

Why it matters: the presenters said the strategic plan will serve as a road map for the district and a tool to align staff training, resource allocation and the district's integrated plans. Michael Clark, Willamette ESD director of communications, said the ESD will also help the district create concise messages for the public so community members can see how plan goals connect to students and families.

The ESD listed five objectives for the project: conduct a comprehensive analysis of current district performance; engage key stakeholders; develop a desired‑state report; establish short‑ and long‑term goals; and build an action plan for implementation and monitoring. The ESD told the board it already has started a data dive with district leaders and noted prior community engagement work the district completed.

Board members asked about timeline and cost. One board member asked whether the process could be accelerated; the ESD replied it will follow the board and superintendent's direction but emphasized wanting broad community input across a geographically spread district. The ESD stated the contract for its work is $25,000. "We're actually the pilot district for this," the ESD team said, noting the ESD will dedicate staff to the project.

Superintendent Kellison said administrators had prioritized a new strategic plan earlier in the year and that the district's integrated plan and other federal grants will be informed by the strategic plan. She reminded the board that the district's integrated plan is a large Oregon Department of Education grant that provides roughly $4,000,000 a year to the district and that a clear strategic plan can help focus where those funds are used.

Next steps: the ESD said it will form two internal district groups — a larger strategic planning committee with community representation and a smaller work group for detailed drafting — and the board will have representatives on those groups. The presenters said Kim (the superintendent's office) will return with recommendations on committee membership and timeline updates. "This is your plan. This is the community's plan," Henry said.

Board members and the ESD agreed to follow up in a work session format for deeper, interactive participation and to combine the ESD's leadership team feedback with the board's input.