Frederick County Public Schools begins five-year strategic plan process; board members given survey deadline

Frederick County Public Schools held a strategic-plan work session on Jan. 7 where district leaders and planning partners from Innovate K12 outlined a compressed timeline for producing a new five-year strategic plan and asked board members to complete an initial survey by Jan. 10.

Assistant Superintendent Shanti Knight opened the session and told the board, “this is a really big deal to work through this strategic plan,” saying the district’s current plan expires at the end of the year and the new plan would go into effect next school year.

The consulting team, led by Innovate K12 advisers Evan St. Leifber and Steve Marley, described a process that begins with board input, expands to a community survey and engagement events, and moves from broad mission-and-vision work to narrower priorities, district goals and student competencies. "We will be doing that process in January through February," Marley said, and the consultants said they plan to return in March to review a draft with the board and seek formal approval in April so the plan can be ready by July 1.

Evan St. Leifber demonstrated the survey interface for board members and said each board member would receive a personalized link and a dropdown to identify themselves so the team can confirm participation. He described the board portion as a set of five sections (mission, vision, priorities, district goals and student competencies) with 10 items each; respondents will select their top three items in each section and may add open-ended comments.

St. Leifber and Marley said the consultants will aggregate and analyze the responses using proprietary data-analytics methods (including large language models) to surface themes and sentiment, but they emphasized the board and district staff will be able to review and revise any draft results. "You guys will get first dibs to seeing what that original report looks like and see if we are in a place where collectively we're in agreement," Marley said.

Board members asked logistical and substantive questions. A board member asked whether there would be an "other" option in the top-three selections; staff said an open-ended comment box is available and has no character limit. The board requested bios for the consulting team; Innovate K12 agreed to provide them. The board also asked whether the community-facing materials and surveys could be available in Spanish; consultants and staff said translation for survey instruments is possible and that video messages can be considered for Spanish speakers.

Director Atkins raised overcrowding in FCPS schools as a priority concern and urged the board to ensure the strategic plan accounts for facility and learning-environment issues. The board discussed using learning-environment goals as a measurable priority while acknowledging that capital funding and other resources to address overcrowding may be outside the district's direct control. The board also asked Innovate K12 to review the district's existing Inspire 2025 plan and related data so prior successes and shortcomings are considered rather than reinventing existing efforts.

The board set the board-survey response deadline for Jan. 10 and instructed staff and consultants to develop the community survey and engagement calendar after a brief video message from the acting chair. Consultants said they will compile and stratify the data (by role, tenure, demographics, etc.) if the board requests those slices during development.

Votes at a glance: The meeting recorded two routine motions by voice vote: approval of the meeting agenda (motion, second; approved by voice) and a motion to adjourn (motion, second; approved by voice). No formal roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.

Why it matters: The strategic plan will set FCPS priorities and performance indicators for roughly 14,000 students and guide board and district decisions on instruction, resources and long-term goals for the next five years. The consultants and district staff emphasized that the plan will include key performance indicators (KPIs) so the board can monitor progress and adjust strategy as needed.

Next steps: Board members will receive the board survey link and are asked to submit responses by Jan. 10. Staff and Innovate K12 will prepare a community survey and engagement schedule to run in January–February, return a draft strategic plan for board review in March, and aim for board approval in April for a July 1 effective date.