Continuous School Committee Involvement
During the strategic planning process, we only had a few touch points with the School Committee.
This could vary widely among districts, depending on local context and politics. In Salem, our first contact with the School Committee was a presentation of the scope of work at a public meeting. The strategic planning process officially commenced once approval was granted. Thereafter, School Committee members were invited to serve as members of work teams—and most of them did participate. Two School Committee members were asked to join the Steering Committee, and the superintendent provided periodic progress reports to the School Committee as a whole—both in individual meetings and in public session. Throughout the process, School Committee members were involved in drafting the mission, vision, and values for the district, and we held a School Committee retreat to finalize them.
More about: School Committee
key takeaways
- Stay in touch
Include School Committee members throughout the planning process to ensure that they are fully on board with the strategic plan and have multiple opportunities to weigh in. We firmly believe that the ease with which our final plan was approved can be attributed to the School Committee's ongoing and authentic involvement in the process. - Streamline
Keep the lines of communication streamlined so that outside facilitators' contact with the School Committee is almost exclusively through the superintendent. - Engage
Engage the School Committee in the work of drafting and approving the mission, vision, and values for the district.
