Mount Pleasant board approves 2024–29 strategic plan after yearlong community process

The Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education approved a new five-year strategic plan on Aug. 19, adopting mission, vision and belief statements the district will use to guide policy and budgeting through 2029.

Superintendent Jennifer introduced Yvan, a consultant from the Michigan Association of School Boards, who presented the final report and supporting documents. Yvan told the board the process took about a year and included face-to-face and online engagement. "Your whole community has been a real pleasure for me to work with," he said during the presentation.

Board members read the plan's mission and vision aloud. The mission reads, in part, "to empower excellence in all aspects of our school community," and the vision commits the district "to be an inclusive learning community of responsible, engaged and empowered citizens." The plan also lists five goal areas: academics and programs; culture and learning environment; communications and community engagement; personnel and leadership; and operations.

Yvan and district leaders described concrete, year-one objectives tied to each goal area. Academic priorities include researching high-yield student engagement strategies and collecting data on curriculum fidelity. Culture priorities include an audit of behavior practices and creating a districtwide inventory of support services. Communications goals focus on launching a strategic communications plan and updating stakeholder contact information; personnel goals include staff handbooks and an onboarding process; operations priorities include policy reviews around safety and student access.

Board members asked how the plan will connect to the district's MIP system and the annual budget. Yvan recommended aligning the strategic plan deliverables with quarterly or trimester reporting cycles and said he typically saw reporting to the community three times a year. The board and superintendent discussed using parts of the plan to inform future superintendent evaluation goals.

The board took a formal vote and approved the plan, effective Aug. 19, 2024; the motion carried by voice vote ('all in favor'). The district will next develop an implementation calendar and reporting approach to track progress on the plan's objectives.