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Yakima School Board hears plan to simplify district strategic plan, launches community kickoff
Summary
Superintendent and district leaders described a "refresh" that reduces five goals to four, makes graduation the overarching "North Star," and uses a hybrid Canvas/in-person process; a community kickoff is set for Sept. 3 at Stanton Academy.
Superintendent Dr. Green and district staff on Tuesday walked the Yakima School Board through a planned "strategic plan refresh" designed to simplify goals, improve measurement and expand community engagement.
Dr. Green introduced a core leadership team that includes Andy Gonzalez, the district—xecutive director of technology, and Henry Sampson, an assistant principal at Eisenhower High School, and said the refresh is intended "to align efforts around initiatives and activities across the district as well as enhance accountability of the measurable goals" the district uses. "It helps guide directions around resource allocation," he said.
Andy Gonzalez described the effort as "a refresh, not a redo," and said the revision will reduce the plan from five goals to four so the plan is easier for students, staff and families to use. Gonzalez said the district will move the previous graduation target from a standalone goal into a broader outcome that serves as a "North Star" for the remaining goals. "We moved it from the compass goal to actually the North Star that everything feeds into," he said.
District presenters said the engagement model will be hybrid: Canvas-hosted materials and in-person meetings for team leads and community stakeholders. A staff presenter explained the approach "will ensure that stakeholders arrive prepared and can focus their face to face time on building trust and making decisions," and that each team is expected to hold four to five meetings before producing draft recommendations for the board.
On accountability, board members asked how the board will monitor "reasonable progress." Staff replied they will build data dashboards to visualize incremental change and to show progress over time rather than the large, hard-to-interpret jumps in the previous plan. "You'll be able to look at it and progress monitor," a presenter said, noting dashboards will surface contextual data to explain why results look the way they do.
The presenters said a community kickoff meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 3 at Stanton Academy from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. The district expects team meetings to continue through the fall, with the refresh timeline described as beginning in September 2025 and concluding in February 2026. The district urged board members and community members to participate in committee work or attend breakout sessions at the kickoff.
Next steps: staff offered to bring periodic updates to the board (potentially one goal per month) and to publish materials and opportunities for public input on the district website and other communications channels.
