Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 trustees heard a final draft of the district's five-year strategic plan and were told the board will consider the plan for a vote at its June 17 meeting.

The plan, developed with a consulting team from CEI and district staff, sets four focus areas''prepared and supported students; wellness and belonging; prepared and supported staff; and effective district operations''and lays out measurable goals for academics, attendance, staff retention and resource access over the next five years.

Alex Carter, a lead consultant from CEI, told the Board of Education the plan was informed by extensive input: "the data that we use to build this plan were over 9,000 student surveys, over 2,000 family surveys, over 1,400 teacher surveys," plus in-depth interviews and school walk-throughs. He said the planning process produced clear community priorities including improving academic rigor, supporting staff retention, and strengthening family and community engagement.

Carter summarized the plan's academic goals as two primary targets: by 2030, 90% of D51 schools should be in the state's highest-rated performance category, and students should demonstrate grade-appropriate progress across early literacy, upper elementary, middle and high school measures. On belonging and attendance, the plan aims to increase student-reported belonging measures by roughly 7 percentage points and to reduce chronic absenteeism from 37% to 17%.

The plan also calls for a 20% improvement in favorable staff job-satisfaction responses over five years and sets recruitment and retention strategies to keep and attract educators. Under operations, the plan seeks to increase community partnerships by 10% and for 85% of staff to report they have the instructional resources needed to support student learning.

Board discussion focused on ambition and implementation. Board member Jones asked why the operations target was 85% rather than a higher figure; Carter and district leaders said 85% reflects a baseline and an incremental five-year target tied to existing TLCC survey results, and that the plan is designed to be adjusted if targets are met earlier.

Superintendent Dr. Hill and Director Chavez both emphasized that approving the plan will be the first step and that operational teams will create implementation teams and 90-day plans to translate priorities into month-by-month actions and monthly board updates. Carter added that CEI and district staff have already begun convening school-level teams and expect to publish the strategies and measures on the district website after board approval.

The board did not take a vote on the plan during the presentation; the final vote is scheduled for the board's June 17 meeting.