Fox Chapel Area SD superintendent unveils draft comprehensive plan, seeks community feedback before March submission
Summary
The superintendent presented the district's three-year comprehensive plan draft required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, outlined steering-committee work and emerging themes, and announced four community focus groups and an email (compplanfcasd.edu) for public feedback before the March board review and the district's March 31 submission to PDE.
The Fox Chapel Area School District superintendent presented a draft of the district's required three-year comprehensive plan and asked the community to review materials posted on the district website and provide feedback.
The plan, required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and structured around profile, needs assessment, action planning and assurances, is rooted in the district's strategic vision pillars of purpose, passion, care and community, the superintendent said. She told the board the draft will be posted on the district website and will appear on the board's March agenda for approval before submission to PDE by March 31.
The superintendent described the steering committee's membership (administrators, teachers, staff, parents, community representatives and local business leaders) and a multi-stage outreach process: internal steering-committee meetings, building- and grade-level focus groups, student-cabinet sessions and four community focus groups scheduled in February (one in-person session and three virtual sessions). She said nearly 40 people had signed up for two of the sessions and that residents may register via the district link or by calling Mrs. Anusik, executive assistant/board secretary. For written comments, the district posted an email address in the presentation (compplanfcasd.edu).
Board members asked for concrete examples of how the previous comprehensive plan affected students. The superintendent pointed to structured-literacy requirements adopted districtwide, curriculum changes that added career- and life-skills experiences such as JA BizTown for fourth graders, and expanded internship and apprenticeship opportunities at the secondary level as examples that came from prior planning work.
The superintendent emphasized that the PDE plan is a narrowly focused document but said the district is using the process to solicit broader input to shape a strategic vision that will guide work and performance indicators for the next three years. The board and staff agreed to disaggregate focus-group feedback where feasible to identify differences among students, staff, parents and community respondents.
Next steps: the district will collect and analyze focus-group and survey feedback, post updates and any revisions to the plan on the website, and return the final draft to the board in March for review and anticipated action before the state submission deadline.
