Discussion: Strategic Plan

Transcript (~8 min @ 56:16)

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▶ 56:11 Speaker 7: all right. Well, if there's no further comments on that, we'll move on to our final agenda item, and that will appear in our next committee meeting for potentially first vote. Our final item on tonight's agenda for policy and planning is the strategic planning discussion. We've talked about this a couple times. As we are now excuse me, in the wrapping up phase of our previous three-year plan, the superintendent and I have discussed a little bit about where we might head with strategic planning on a longer-term basis. And I've highlighted to the superintendent and Chair Kelley a discussion around some steps we might take to move forward on that. So, there's an interest in how we would move forward with potentially a shorter-term plan, reflecting on the fact that over the last three years we've seen a great deal of disruption in our school system financially, staffing-wise, as a result of those financial impacts. In a lot of ways, there's just been a lot going on with the district where we want to first assess where we are in the three-year plan that we are coming to the conclusion on. This gives the superintendent an opportunity to really dig into that and identify places where we've made progress, where we maybe need to focus a little bit more over the next year. So I'd offer that the initial part of this timeline is to look towards August, where the superintendent would come to us, discuss the current three-year plan that's coming to a conclusion, and what that might turn into as a potential one-year plan, highlighting elements of that plan that need additional focus in this next coming year. That would give us the time in late August to meet as a committee again or early September, potentially with the help of MASC, guiding a discussion, pulling out from us as a committee what our directional thoughts are representing the community, highlighting some large topics for the superintendent to consider as she begins a longer-term planning process. So that would be late August or early September, where we would have that as a next step for the committee. At the same time as this, the superintendent and her team is working to pull through that remaining elements of the closing out policy. They would present essentially where we are in September, as well as what would a one-year plan look like. That would be the direction for September. And then her and her team would incorporate the feedback from our dialogue session and work through October to start coming up with strategic elements of a master plan for the next few years beyond the one-year plan. I know I'm throwing out a couple different dates at the same time, but hopefully people are following me. Please raise your hand if you have a question as I'm describing it. So October is really a time for the superintendent and her team to get into the weeds on some of the data, some of the elements that her principals and leadership team need to really get into around strategic planning, hold some sessions with her teams, and that would be her time for her team, October and probably November, to resolve and work on those questions, work with site councils, work with different buildings on elements of a strategic planning process. And then we would look towards December to start seeing some of that framework coming from the superintendent back to the committee. We would consider that framework. We would respond to it, give her further feedback about how she could change direction on certain things or what she would need to focus on as she presents it. And then January through February, we would start to formalize that, start to see coming from the district a more thorough and full strategic plan coming forward. No specific timeline on when we have to vote on it, but this is just the general framework for working through the fall so that we have a process to follow input from the school committee. We could work in community sessions as needed or surveys as another aspect of collecting community feedback. A lot of elements along the way that we could build into it, but giving both the committee some time to focus on elements and giving that feedback to the superintendent, and also giving the superintendent and her team really an opportunity to deeply dive through the fall into the work they need to do so they can bring something back later in the winter and midwinter for us to really consider and chew on.

▶ 1:00:21 Speaker 7: So that's our general framework. If there's questions, or if there's thoughts about a different direction on any of those elements, please, this is the time to bring that forward so that we can kick off where we're headed.

▶ 1:00:34 Speaker 7: Mr. Kelley?

▶ 1:00:35 Speaker 1: Sure. Thank you very much. I would just sort of maybe think a little bit out loud that doing anything in August, which is in three days, might be a little bit of a challenge with people being away and trying to schedule things in. So maybe September might be a time where people might be able to devote a little bit more time to this, but that's just my initial thought. Mm-hmm.

▶ 1:00:57 Speaker 6: Yeah.

▶ 1:00:59 Speaker 7: Ms. Rosie Thomas.

▶ 1:01:00 Speaker 2: I know that we always have issues related to putting things on our agenda once we start budget season. Now, this year should be an easier budget season than previous ones. Not so much this year, but previous years. So, I would just say, it depends on-- Having a general outline is a really good idea, because you have a lot of things that you want to try to get done before budget season, and I think that was probably part of the intent. But a strategic plan is also based on what every school needs to work on in terms of school improvement. Mm-hmm. So we've really done-- The schools have done a great job in the last year getting back to that, and there's some basic foundational ideas that this wonderful superintendent we have here in front of us, that she's offered to us in terms of what the foundation that she wants to build off of. So the one thing I would just caution us is, I would love a strategic plan with lots of community input, but I also think the one that she probably puts together for that one year is probably what the long-term plan is going to look like, and then they'll dig into it and create more layers to it- Mm-hmm ... and more ways to get to the goals. But I don't think it's going to be radically different than what we have already, unless we want to really change direction, which I don't think we want to. Mm-hmm. So, I don't know. I think strategic plans are incredibly important, and there's also the daily work, and that's incredibly important. So I think we're already on a really good path, is what I would say. Mm-hmm.

▶ 1:02:37 Speaker 7: So. Thank you. Yeah.

▶ 1:02:41 Speaker 6: Further comments?

▶ 1:02:42 Speaker 7: Just replying quickly as well, I think that thinking about the budget question, was one of the driving factors was trying to conclude most of the heavy lifting before January and February. Mm-hmm. Have the superintendent working with her team and starting to bring that dialogue back to us in January as we start a budget session sometime in late February or March, as we did this year. So considering that timeline, trying to conclude most of our work on that before we dig into the budget. And also, as we think about the budget, the budget should be informed by a new strategic plan and where we're headed with that. So that's another element as well, to connect those dots.

▶ 1:03:21 Speaker 7: So, okay. Well, if there's no further feedback, we'll continue that dialogue. Actually, responding to Mr. Kelley's point, I think when we're considering a session with the committee and MASC, we had discussed whether it might be a Saturday morning. That's happened historically in the past. So whether if that's easier in September, we can work on scheduling that so that it's a session that is more accessible rather than dominating an evening agenda, if you will. It might not be the most appropriate use of our time during evening agenda when we have a lot of other business to tackle. So, if that's all, then we can conclude policy and planning, and move on to our next subcommittee.

▶ 1:04:02 Speaker 1: Okay, moving on to education programs and personnel.

▶ 1:04:17 Speaker 2: Good evening. Thank you for the introduction. We have one agenda item tonight that we will need to vote on, and I'm very excited to bring in front of us Mr. Corrigan, who, through the superintendent, is going to explain the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School School Improvement Plan for this coming year. And we're very excited to have you