District launches year‑long, community‑driven process for the 2026–2031 strategic plan

Orange County Schools leaders presented a year‑long process to develop the district’s 2026–2031 strategic plan, emphasizing broad community inclusion, student voice and iterative drafting.

District officials described a three‑phase timeline: (1) Engage — collect feedback by survey and in person; (2) Challenge — convene small, mixed stakeholder work groups to translate feedback into draft priorities and measurable goals; and (3) Inspire — launch the adopted plan in 2026 with an implementation roadmap. Mariah Morris, director of strategic initiatives, said the district received about 611 survey responses across staff, families, students and community members and is coding open responses for themes.

The district will host two large community listening sessions (Nov. 3 at Cedar Ridge High School and Dec. 2 at Orange High School) and five neighborhood listening sessions to meet people where they live. Sessions will be translated into Spanish and organizers said a Spanish‑language session will be translated into English so the feedback can be captured in both languages. Student‑focused sessions were scheduled to begin immediately; district leaders said they would also convene cabinet and department work groups to ensure the plan aligns with central services operations.

The process will open applications for small priority work groups in January; those groups — made up of staff and community members — will draft priority goals for the board’s review. Board members praised the inclusivity of the outreach plan and suggested inviting returning college students and recent alumni to contribute perspective in addition to current students.

District leaders said they expect some flexibility in the timeline and emphasized that the district preferred a thorough, community‑driven process over meeting a strict calendar if more time was required to gather meaningful input.