Onalaska board approves updated five-pillar strategic plan

The Onalaska School District Board of Education voted June 8 to approve an updated strategic plan that reorganizes district priorities into five pillars and moves language about public understanding of finance into the family and community engagement pillar.

The plan, presented by Ben during the meeting, was the product of community sessions and a small board working group. Ben said the primary change was relocating a bullet on helping the community better understand school funding from the finance and operations pillar to family and community engagement so it could be tracked on a scorecard. "We moved that language to be in that pillar which I believe is pillar three now," he said.

Board members who participated in drafting the revisions told colleagues the edits were intended to keep the document aligned with the community input gathered earlier this year. Bridget said the revision "better fit under community engagement because it really is creating content and helping the community better understand how school funding works." Board members praised the clarity and said they did not seek major changes to the community-developed draft.

After discussion, a motion to approve the updated strategic plan was moved and seconded. A roll-call vote followed and the board recorded 'yes' votes from Tracy, Bridget, Mark, Brian, Ann, Tisha and Aaron. The board chair declared the plan approved and thanked the small group that refined the language.

The board directed administration to take the next administrative steps to implement the plan and to report progress via the district scorecard. Board members said they expect scorecard measures to be used to monitor how the new wording is operationalized.

The board had previously held community engagement sessions involving more than 60 stakeholders, staff and students to develop the draft that was refined by the working group before tonight's vote.