Wilmette SD 39 board committees preview five‑year strategic plan after broad community input

The Wilmette SD 39 Committee of the Whole on June 8 reviewed a draft five‑year strategic plan that will be presented for board approval at the next Board of Education meeting. District leaders said the draft reflects more than 450 focus‑group participants and 555 adult survey responses collected during the planning process.

District staff framed five strategic priorities that remain from the prior plan — student learning and growth; student experience and community; professional experience and community; family experience and partnership; and stewardship of resources — and described more specific commitments under each. The district highlighted four community priorities identified for early action: advanced learning and differentiation, social‑emotional and behavioral and mental health needs, executive functioning skills (goal setting, organization, self‑management), and teacher and staff care and excellence.

Kelly Jackson, a district presenter, said the plan is intentionally a high‑level set of commitments that will be followed by annual action steps and a short‑cycle scorecard. "These are the big aims — from there we will develop measures and short‑cycle improvement action steps so we can evaluate quarter‑to‑quarter whether what we are doing is working," Jackson said.

Board members pressed for clarity about how the district will translate the high‑level commitments into measurable action. Several trustees urged clearer language on student challenge and growth: one board member suggested the draft change a sentence that currently reads "students feel personally challenged and supported" to language that reads as both an emotional and actual learning outcome (for example, "students feel and are supported in making growth"). District leaders said they welcome that editing and reiterated the schedule: the board will see proposed action steps and scorecard metrics in September.

The draft plan emphasizes maintaining the district's core vision and portrait of a D39 scholar while refocusing strategic language to prioritize measurable student growth and day‑to‑day instructional supports. District staff said the strategic dashboard created during the prior five‑year plan will remain an umbrella accountability vehicle, but the new scorecard will track the shorter‑cycle indicators leaders say teachers need to guide instruction.

Next steps: the committee will present the final draft to the full Board next week, and staff will return in September with the first set of action steps and the proposed scorecard for board review and potential approval.