District 202 Considering Goals for Next 5 Years

building principals will have the next few weeks to gather any last input from their parents or parent-teacher groups on the district’s five-year strategic plan that the school board will vote on later this month.

District administration and the school board have been working for months on its new five-year plan, which contains four overarching goals and a series of projects, programs and priorities that will help achieve those four main goals.

The district’s four main goals are:

1. Our Learning Community will be a place where each individual can achieve their maximum individual potential.
2. Optimal learning cultures, climates and facilities will be developed and maintained.
3. Communication strategies will create a climate of inclusion, trust and shared responsibility.
4. Resources will be developed and optimized to fulfill the vision, mission and goals of the district.

To come up with new ways to achieve these goals, the district earlier this year hosted staff members, residents, parents, business and community leaders and students in a series of forums to talk about what direction the schools should head. About 275 people participated in the talks, which also asked what programs are necessary and what could be dropped due to budget constraints.

Also, more than 3,000 people responded to an online survey about the five-year plan this year. Survey responders – 79 percent of which were parents of current students – were generally happy with the district’s offerings and were asked to rate their priorities for the next five years.

Among the ideas that the district would like to see implemented is continuing to align its curriculum to the federally issued national learning goals. The district also wants to ensure the needs of high-achieving elementary students are met through its accelerated curriculum and that the needs of special education students at all levels are reached.

Another goal is to expand the high school curriculum so students receive both high school and college credit for certain coursework and provide students with a greater opportunity to use technology as a learning tool.

Administration, parents and community members would like to see the anti-bullying curriculum extended. The district began last year an anti-bullying task force to study how to further prevent bullying from taking place and to develop resources for both victims and bullies. A new bullying hotline for each of the 30 schools was implemented this school year.

The district also wants to develop a sportsmanship philosophy or code of conduct that governs student athletes, coaches and spectators to promote a healthy and respectful sports atmosphere. The healthy competition goal is an extension of the anti-bullying work it is doing, according to the district.

Parents were interested in continuing and expanding the Parent Web Module feature on the district’s Web site to include individual teacher Web pages and parental access to their childrens’ grades, attendance, homework and other information.

Another of the district’s goals include developing a long-range strategic financial plan to achieve a balanced budget and looking for alternative funding sources.

School and business partnerships should also be researched to provide enhanced instructional opportunities and internships for students, according to the district’s goals.

While District 202 has not yet discussed specific business-education partnerships, other districts have raised funds by selling naming rights to stadiums or scoreboards.

For a full list of the district’s goals under consideration, visit http://www.psd202.org/Documents/FIVE_YEAR_STRATEGIC_PLAN.pdf.