Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Strategic Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board workshops new strategic-plan priorities; behavior supports, data and attendance rise to top
Summary
Board and consultant Bess Silvera used workshop exercises to refine the district's draft vision and surface priority areas. Stakeholder input (1,000+ staff responses, parent and community surveys) produced recurring themes: behavior and mental-health supports, actionable data systems, attendance, tighter focus on priorities, staff professional learning and consistent communication.
At a strategic-planning workshop March 31, consultant Bess Silvera and district staff took the board through the process for updating the district vision, values and strategic priorities. The session combined a review of stakeholder input, a fist-to-five check on draft vision language, and a sticky-note exercise to capture each board member's near-term priority ideas.
Stakeholder input: staff and principals engaged in facilitated sessions and the district received more than 1,000 staff survey responses; a community committee and a parent survey complemented outreach. Staff asked for fewer, clearer priorities and more actionable, real-time data (attendance, assessment and intervention tracking) to support decision-making.
Key emerging priorities: board keywords and sticky-note clustering produced consistent themes: stronger school-based behavioral and mental-health supports and clearer student-discipline staffing; more actionable data systems and consistent, centralized communication tools; focused priorities ("fewer nonnegotiables" to reduce initiative fatigue); improved staff professional learning and expanded early-learning and post-graduation pathways (career, technical, college). Several members also urged adding financial sustainability as a strategic priority.
Why it matters: board members said a shorter, clearer set of priority areas will let the district align department goals and SMART targets more effectively. The consultant described the next steps: staff will synthesize board keywords, build draft priority areas and SMART goals, and bring a refined strategic-plan draft back to the board in May for further input and July adoption.
Quotes: "We had over 1,000 respondents for [the staff] survey," the consultant said. A board member captured the sentiment of several colleagues: "Let's select three nonnegotiables as district priorities so that we're all heading in the same direction." Board members specifically flagged behavior supports and attendance as high-priority implementation areas.
Next steps: staff will translate the board's prioritized themes into draft strategic goals and SMART measures, gather further staff and community input in April and May, and return a consolidated draft to the board for finalization ahead of fall implementation.
