Sau39 stratplan vers2

SAU #39

WORKING DRAFT

Strategic Plan

2014-2019

The schools of Amherst, Mont Vernon, and Souhegan

SEPTEMBER 2014

WORKING DRAFT

WORKING DRAFT

Mission Statement We will engage, challenge, and support all learners.

Core Values We surround our children with caring adults.

We challenge students to grapple with serious questions and ideas.

A Letter from the Superintendent and Chair of the SAU #39 Board About one year ago the SAU #39 board agreed to collaborate on a strategic plan designed to guide the organization into a brighter future. SAU #39 has a lot to be proud of, including strong academic outcomes, strong civic engagement, and innovative approaches to educating our youth. However, the board also recognizes that many challenges lie ahead, including the need for our students to be ready for the rapidly changing world beyond high school, rising costs and decreasing student population, and ensuring that our facilities are supporting the educational needs of our students.

This new strategic plan provides a road map to better future while taking into consideration the challenges that might prevent us from reaching our vision.

We promote a culture of collaboration, reflection, and responsibility.

We refine teaching and learning through research and use of best practices.

The strategic plan charts a future that relies on the strengths that these school districts have built up over the years. High quality teachers, strong student-educator relationships, and an invested community provide the bedrock of our schools. This strategic plan creates a vision of how we will continue to improve and reach the next level of our vision.

Peter Warburton, Superintendent John Quinlan, Chair of the SAU #39 Board

We uphold high academic, civic, and social learning expectations.

We celebrate effort and achievement of all members of our learning community.

We prepare students for college, work, and citizenship.

We work in partnership with our communities.

We nurture curiosity, empathy, and lifelong learning.

We measure our progress with a variety of indicators.

1

2

WORKING DRAFT

WORKING DRAFT

Strategic Plan Overview Beginning in the fall of 2013 the combined boards of School Administrative Unit #39 (SAU #39) initiated a strategic planning process with the goal of completing the plan by fall 2014. This process has depended on feedback from stakeholders to identify the strengths of the organization, the opportunities the board should be considering for the future, and what the organization should be aspiring to become. Board members completed numerous one-on-one interviews and analyzed over 2,000 surveys from students, parents, staff, and community members, engaged in a full day retreat with invited speakers, staff, and community members, and worked in small groups of members, staff, and community members.

UNITE STREAMLINE

Using stakeholder feedback and vital information provided by the district in previous board meetings (e.g. demographic changes, student academic performance, and financial information) the board identified five key themes to chart the future course around: Advance, Connect, Invest, Streamline, and Unite. For each theme the board identified one or two goals for the future. Each goal includes multiple strategies that bridge the gap between the present and the imagined future.

INVEST

Advance

How do we prepare students for the 21st Century? And how do we meet the needs of high achieving students?

CONNECT

Connect

How do we connect or partner with other schools, civic organizations, businesses and colleges to broaden our understanding and expand our opportunities?

Invest

How do we attract, develop, and retain our teachers to achieve excellence in teaching? And how do we enhance our facilities to support and promote academics, athletics, the arts, and wellness?

Streamline

ADVANCE

How do we become a more efficient school system through the adoption of innovative management practices, investing in technology, or other options?

Unite

How do we create a unified and consistent educational philosophy throughout the SAU?

3

4

WORKING DRAFT

WORKING DRAFT

Advance

Connect

Goal

Goal

Prepare our students to compete and thrive in a continuously changing, technologically connected, global marketplace.

-- Creating opportunities for community representation on key business and education coalitions

UNITE

Create learning opportunities that extend beyond the walls of our schools.

STREAMLINE

Strategies

Strategies

• Identify citizens serving in key roles in NH. Educate them on our schools and ask for their advocacy

• Foster and support system-wide collaboration and commitment to expanding experiential learning opportunities at all grade levels

through 12 curricula and culture of rigorous academic excellence that includes full day Kindergarten and is Common Core State Standards (CCSS) assessment based.

INVEST

#2: Research, develop, and invest in fully integrated

Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) curricula that supports inquiry, understanding, discovery, application, and innovation.

CONNECT

#3: Strengthen our SAU39 alumni base

• Integrate experiential learning opportunities into curriculum and learner expectations at all grade levels

• Ask for alumni commitment to share their stories with, and be mentors to, our students

#2: Nurture and grow community, business, and college collaboration

• Seek out community, business and college leaders to collaborate in the design and delivery of programs and experiences

#3: Begin multilingual instruction in kindergarten. #4: Research, develop, and invest in library, technology,

and digital media capabilities to be integrated into all areas of curriculum, including the functions of media specialists and technology integrators.

#5: Adopt assessment methodologies to provide the basis for differentiated instruction (DI) and personalized learning plans (PLPs)

#6: Implement a computing solution where students use

ADVANCE

particularly those near/at retirement, in supporting and advocating for our students and our schools • Ask citizens to serve as advisors and mentors to our students, faculty and staff

#1: Develop SAU39-wide collaboration and commitment:

#1: Realize a fully aligned and unified SAU39 Pre-K

#2: Engage Amherst and Mt. Vernon citizens,

#3: Support family engagement and commitment to

• Using multiple communication channels, promote the value of our schools by sharing alumni stories with our communities and other key supporters

#4: Think of our schools as community centers • Invite members of our communities to create opportunities to expand use of our facilities

learning beyond the classroom

#4: Provide student experiences that accelerate individual learning

• Develop a SAU39 multiyear plan to expand learning opportunities beyond the classroom

STR

• Collaborate with other communities and organizations

a personal device to publish, collaborate, communicate, and evaluate information.

Goal

Create multi-faceted opportunities that build relationships among our schools and our communities

#7: Establish resources at each school to provide

leadership, instruction, support, and best practices to extend opportunities for advanced learners.

Strategies:

#8: Establish collaborative efforts with local high schools,

Strategy

colleges, universities, and businesses to:

• Allow students to combine coursework and participate in experiences outside of their school or grade • Expand academic offerings within Souhegan High School and provide advanced courses that would not otherwise be available

INVEST

#1: Appoint a voluntary SAU39 Marketing Committee

CONNECT

• Bring together experts in our community to develop and implement an ongoing campaign to: -- Promote our schools’ and our students’ accomplishments -- Share SAU39’s future direction and invite commitment and support

• Offer increased opportunities for college credit to high school students

ADVANCE

-- Increase interest in and advocacy for our schools • Marketing Committee responsibilities will include -- Recommending schools’ communication strategies and channels including local media, websites, social media, etc.

5

6

WORKING DRAFT

WORKING DRAFT

Invest

Streamline

Goal

Goal

Attract, develop, and retain educators and staff to promote excellence in teaching.

Examine school district operations by adopting datadriven management to seek to consolidate processes and resources across the SAU to become a more efficient school system.

Strategies

#1: Develop a teacher and leader effectiveness system

Strategies

#2: Partner with higher education to source and cultivate

#1: Investigate alternative school district configurations to

talent

achieve operational efficiency

#3: Identify and provide innovative and competitive

#2: Identify and select modern management practices

employee benefit programs

specifically designed to improve efficiency and student outcomes

#4: Implement advanced and wide-ranging professional development initiatives

#3: Invest in systems, processes, and cultural modeling to

• Develop mentoring program

UN

support data-informed management

• Establish after school professional development academy

• Accurately collect basic student, financial, IT, procurement and human resource data.

E

IN ML

• Make data readily accessible and connect data across content areas and outcomes.

Goal

Modernize our facilities and infrastructure to support the academic, athletic, arts, and wellness needs of the 21st century learner in alignment with the SAU #39 strategic goals.

EA R T S

• LinkUNITE the data across time in order to compare and assess how to improve performance.

STREAMLINE

Strategies

#1: Support health and wellness mindset

• Accurately collect parent, citizen and student service and satisfaction data, and ensure that data is mapped and analyzed in real time.

T

• Make human capital operations a priority in an effort to monitor personnel, assess performance, manage employee hiring, benefits, complaints, transfers and termination.

#2: Reconfigure space to support project-based learning,

differentiated instruction, and personalized learning plans

#3: Define opportunities to support the arts

INVEST

• Conduct facility and curriculum needs assessment • Explore community, state, and national partnerships

CONNECT

#4: Improve recreational and athletic facilities

ES V N I

• Monitor basic business practices including procurement, maintenance, and capital asset utilization.

CT

NE N CO

CE N VA AD

ADVANCE

7

8

WORKING DRAFT

WORKING DRAFT

Unite Goal

Adopt a SAU-wide unified philosophy that allows all students to reach their full potential.

UNITE

Strategies

STREAMLINE

#1: Adopt a unified philosophy to create a path for new organizational structures within the SAU.

• Unify teaching and learning for all primary, elementary, and middle school students.

• Explore membership in the Coalition of Essential Schools to identify common principles for teaching and learning.

#2: Establish personalized learning as a defining

INVEST

characteristic of our schools.

CONNECT

• Provide resources for small class sizes at each grade level.

• Create a network of professional development to encourage crosspollination of teaching practices that improve and enhance student learning.

#3: Develop common standards for all students pre-K-12.

ADVANCE

• Establish academic standards that provide guidance on what students need to know and be able to do, and habits of mind that state social and learning expectations.

• Adopt a common reporting system based on academic standards and habits of mind that are age appropriate and include narrative comments on student progress.

#4: Foster the responsibility of students to serve as active citizens in a democratic society

• Create social contexts for learning that are age appropriate and focus on issues of concerns to those students.

• Focus on 21st century skills of global awareness, information technology, creativity, problem-solving, curiosity, communication, and responsibility.

9

10