Wallingford-Swarthmore committee reviews 2025 strategic-plan progress; equity policy, curriculum and capital plan highlighted

At the Educational Affairs Committee's first meeting of 2025, administrators presented progress on the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District strategic plan and outlined next steps on diversity, curriculum, wellness and facilities work.

The update covered five pathways in the plan: diversity, equity and belonging; teaching, learning and innovation; culture, community and communications; wellness and social-emotional learning; and infrastructure and finance. District presenters said an equity statement is in draft, professional development is shifting from district-wide sessions to building-based work, curriculum teams are drafting syllabi and intentional unit upgrades, PBIS and outside partners are being used to refine social-emotional supports, and facilities teams completed assessments to inform a 10-year capital plan.

The committee's discussion focused on whether bias-incident responses are reducing disparities, how counseling programs are assessed, timelines for curriculum work and how the capital plan will be funded.

District leaders said the equity statement — developed with teachers, students and other stakeholders — remains a draft and will be refined with feedback from teachers, administrators, students and the board before a policy is written. "We started with developing the statement of intent with a whole group of stakeholders," said Dr. Ashwina Maszkowski, who…