Knox County Board hears five-year strategic plan presentation; staff to turn goals into measurable annual actions

The Knox County Board of Education on June 2, 2025 received a presentation of a proposed five-year strategic plan intended to guide district decision-making, budget priorities and program evaluation through 2030.

Accenture consultant Jenny Brinkman presented the plan’s mission — “to prepare students for life by providing a high quality education that is accessible, meaningful, and future focused” — and an overview of five goal domains: excellence in foundational skills, great educators in every school, career empowerment and preparation, success for every student, and communication and engagement.

Board member Miss Christie said Tennessee school districts are required to create five-year strategic plans, framing the presentation as both a compliance and planning activity. The process included stakeholder engagement led by Milan Chicago, validation testing with students, families, staff and community members, and a follow-up survey the presenters described as producing high favorability scores across goals and objectives.

Corey, a district staff presenter, described how the five-year objectives will be translated into annual, measurable actions that the district will develop each fall. As an example of the drafting approach, he said staff would translate a strategic objective into a specific annual target such as “increase third grade reading proficiency by 1.8%.” He told the board the annual action plan is intended to make the strategic plan “bite sized” and nimble so targets can be adjusted year to year based on data.

Members asked how the district will measure progress and what would happen when objectives are more process-oriented. Corey and other staff said some annual actions will be quantitatively measurable and others will be milestone or process steps with clear deliverables and report-outs; the board will have an annual opportunity at its retreat to review and revise proposed annual actions.

Board members and staff also discussed alignment with existing initiatives including Region 5 planning and the 8-6-5 academies, and the presenters said work underway in those areas was incorporated into the plan. The committee that oversaw the plan asked staff to develop a schedule for rolling the plan into operational targets and for reporting back to the board.

The board was also told the superintendent’s evaluation tool will need to be revised to align with the new strategic plan; committee members agreed to remain engaged in that follow-up work and staff said a proposed revised evaluation tool is expected for board consideration in late summer or early fall.

No vote was taken on the strategic plan during the meeting; staff will return with the annual action plan development timeline, proposed measurable actions for year one and a revised superintendent evaluation tool for board review.