Bremen Public Schools board begins strategic-planning workshop, flags data and attendance issues

Bremen Public Schools on Wednesday convened a strategic-planning workshop to turn earlier goal statements into measurable strategies, with board members and administrators focusing on three priorities: mutual respect and a caring community, Great Expectations (student achievement), and wise resource management.

The session opened with an overview of the district’s “plan on a page” and the state’s GPS public dashboard, a tool the facilitator said provides useful comparative data but can miss local context. “The GPS is a pretty helpful tool,” said Derek Morgan, director of board services with Ispa, but he urged the board to “look at some of these data metrics with a critical eye” and consider local targets higher than state benchmarks.

Administrators raised specific questions about the dashboard’s reporting. Participants flagged that some dashboard indicators—such as the graduation/pathways completion and a metric described as the percentage of students with 94% or better attendance—can be misleading without understanding local enrollment, transient students and how the state pulls data. One building leader said the district’s diploma/graduation numbers looked low on the dashboard relative to local expectations and noted staff are working with data coordinators to reconcile discrepancies.

Attendance and excused-absence rules drew extended discussion. Board members discussed Board Policy 5200, which allows principal-approved occasional vacation days; administrators said clearer parent messaging and more proactive interventions when students hit early absence thresholds (for example, repeated absences by day 11) could help improve chronic absenteeism.

The group then split into three working teams—one per goal area—to translate goal statements into specific actions and metrics. The Mutual Respect group recommended tracking extracurricular participation and event attendance as indicators of belonging, adding targeted outreach such as breakfasts before big tests to boost attendance. The Great Expectations group changed language from “develop” to “reach full potential,” and proposed a formal seventh-grade graduation/planning checkpoint and clearer success factors for academic targets. The Wise Resource Management group focused on enrollment growth, local marketing, sponsorship outreach and stronger fiscal review processes, including an annual reassessment of budget assumptions and program redundancies.

The facilitator asked district staff to synthesize the breakout notes and present a consolidated plan and suggested annual goals that would allow the board to monitor progress and align the superintendent evaluation with measurable outcomes. “If you are intentional about this, where do we want to be in three years?” the facilitator asked, framing the meeting’s timeframe for measurable change.

No formal votes or policy changes were taken; the session produced draft strategies and a commitment to follow-up. Derek Morgan said he would synthesize the teams’ notes and return recommendations to the board for further refinement and annual goal-setting.