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Board hears update on culture and climate pillar of district strategic plan
Summary
District communications leader summarized community feedback and actions under the strategic plan pillar on safety, culture and climate, including security vestibules, expanded reporting for bullying, and plans to roll out core values districtwide.
The Francis Howell R-III Board of Education received an update Aug. 21 on the district’s strategic plan work related to culture and climate, including feedback from 18 months of surveys, focus groups and roundtables and next steps to promote a safer, more inclusive environment.
Jennifer Joles, the district’s chief communications officer, told the board that the strategic plan centers on four pillars and that the culture and climate pillar emphasizes student and staff safety, belonging and mental‑health supports.
“We asked our community to tell us how we're doing … and I'm gonna quickly highlight just some of the themes we heard over the last 18 months from parents, staff, students, community members,” Joles said. She listed strengths the public identified, including recent safety upgrades—installation of security vestibules at all schools, expansion of the school resource officer program and improved safety communications—as well as strong PTO support and community engagement programs.
Joles also summarized areas residents asked the district to improve: more student voice and decision‑making, hiring a more diverse workforce, staff training on cultural competence, expanded mental‑health supports, and more consistent discipline practices. “Our community believes we need more mental health supports for students, greater consistency in applying student discipline, and more support in addressing student behaviors particularly in the classroom,” she said.
The district described several actions already taken: adding a director of safety and security with 20 years’ law‑enforcement experience, installing security vestibules at all schools, expanding the school resource officer program at some sites, and streamlining the reporting form for bullying and harassment by placing it on Canvas, campus portals and physical posters in buildings.
Joles said the pillar 4 team is finalizing specific action plans and will roll out district core values with framed posters at building entrances this school year. The board and public can expect a formal update on all strategic‑plan pillars in October.
No board policy changes were proposed during the presentation; the report was informational and intended to guide forthcoming action plans.
