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Blaine County district urges five‑year strategic plans over one‑year improvement plans
Summary
Blaine County School District officials told the House Committee on Education they prefer multi‑year strategic plans tied to measurable goals and community input, and outlined their process of surveys, roundtables (including Spanish‑language meetings) and weekly tracking to keep the plan active.
Laura Stone, chair of the Blaine County School District 61 board, and Superintendent Jim Foudy told the Idaho House Committee on Education on Feb. 18 that the district adopted a five‑year strategic plan to focus long‑term decisionmaking and to align board agendas with community priorities.
Foudy said the 2014 legislative change that initially required strategic plans (referenced in testimony as "law 33‑3‑20") was amended a year later and now districts are required to produce annual continuous improvement plans; he described strategic plans as broader, multi‑year documents that can encompass facilities, staffing, budgeting, communication and professional development in addition to student‑achievement targets.
Stone described the local process for Blaine County: a strategic plan developed with broad community input, posted publicly in schools, on board agendas and on the district website, and used to link every agenda item back to the plan's objectives. Foudy said the district gathered more than 700 survey responses, held multiple roundtable discussions (including two in Spanish), and conducted community meetings across the district with roughly 30 people attending on average.
Foudy said the plan is treated as a "living document": the district evaluates progress annually, sets one‑year implementation plans within the five‑year framework and adjusts objectives based on new community input. He recommended that legislatures encourage living strategic planning rather than mandating a document that might be shelved.
Committee members asked whether placing strategic plans back into statute would help; Foudy cautioned that statutory requirements risk producing plans that exist only on paper unless districts treat them as active governance tools. Blaine County officials offered to share templates and surveys with other districts.
