Petersburg launches five-year strategic plan process with HYA, schedules interviews, focus groups and survey

Petersburg City Public Schools on Sept. 23 kicked off work on a five-year strategic plan with HYA, a district-engagement and strategic-planning firm.

Superintendent Monica Brown introduced the initiative and the HYA team, saying the effort will center on student outcomes and community input. "This is the first step in our work to build a five-year strategic plan here for Petersburg City Public Schools," she said.

HYA consultant Natalie Hollerin said the contract's Phase 1 is an "organizational readiness" stage focused on gathering input and preparing materials for broader community engagement. "This stage is Phase 1, where we gather information and input," Hollerin said, outlining a four-phase process that moves from readiness to inclusive engagement, data review and then implementation and evaluation.

HYA told the board it will conduct up to 10 one-hour individual interviews and up to 12 focus groups as part of Phase 2, which the firm plans to run on-site Oct. 16 and 17 with Zoom options for those who cannot attend. "The 10 interviews is what's in our contract to do," Dr. Monica Brown said, clarifying the scope and noting HYA can add sessions if the board requests it.

The district and consultants also agreed on a community-survey window running roughly Sept. 24 through Oct. 17; HYA will finalize survey questions in consultation with district staff before posting the survey on the district website. Hollerin said survey results will be one of several data sources HYA will analyze along with student-achievement metrics, attendance and engagement records, behavior and climate data, college-and-career-readiness measures, staff and human-resources information, finance and operations data, and family/community-engagement indicators.

HYA asked the district to select a 12-to-15-member steering committee that will receive the assembled data for review; HYA requested that the district provide committee members access to a shared Google folder by Oct. 27 and said the steering committee would be sent materials on Nov. 7. HYA's schedule calls for a draft strategic plan to be presented to the board on Dec. 3 and, if approved, a final plan to be brought back for board approval on Dec. 17.

Board members used the meeting to shape the participation lists. Several members asked why the draft interview list showed only one community representative; HYA replied that the draft was a recommendation and that the board could add or substitute names. Board members also asked HYA to include higher-education partners (Brightpoint, Richland and Virginia State were discussed) and suggested adding health providers such as the Crimson Clinic to conversations about chronic absenteeism.

Hollerin emphasized multiple avenues of participation: individual interviews, focus groups, community forums and the online survey. She said HYA will provide a communications toolkit and templates for the district to use in outreach and recommended standard norms and protocols for focus-group discussions.

The board reached consensus on the engagement categories HYA proposed and asked staff to coordinate logistics and communications. Next steps include finalizing the list of interviewees and focus-group rosters, completing and posting the community survey, providing steering-committee access to the shared data folder by Oct. 27, conducting on-site focus groups Oct. 16—-17 (with an optional separate Zoom day), and reviewing the steering-committee findings in early November ahead of the Dec. 3 draft presentation to the board.

The meeting closed after brief closing remarks from board members and the superintendent.