ASHLAND – Community members, staff, administrators and board members met Monday to begin fleshing out a plan for achieving Ashland City Schools’ strategic goals.
Through a recent strategic planning process, the district identified its top five goals as communicating consistently, preparing students for life after graduation, providing student support, fostering professional development and developing dynamic facilities.Â
At Monday’s meeting, those five pillars became the topics for small group discussions. Each small group set more specific goals and action steps within their pillar areas and then reported back to the full group of stakeholders.Â
Communications
The communications committee’s first goal is to create a director of communication role within the district. Board member Bryan Lefelhoc said this could be a new staff member, a communication organization or someone already within the district. Regardless of the form it takes, the person(s) in this role would be responsible for facilitating communication between the district and various stakeholders, such as parents and community members.Â
A second goal of the group is to refine the district’s website to make it more user-friendly. The group plans to create a focus group and conduct a performance audit to determine which parts of the website are working well and which need improvement.Â
The committee’s third goal is to develop strategies for communicating with various audiences. In this area, the group plans to start with a survey to learn how various groups like parents and community members currently receive information and how they would like to receive information.Â
Preparing students for life after graduation
The life after graduation committee identified life skills and career education as top priorities. High school principal Mike Riley said these things need to be systemic and systematic in the curriculum and culture of the district, rather than delivered sporadically or as an elective.Â
Within the life skills category, the group wants to ensure students learn practical skills for independent living as well as soft skills that will help them in the workforce and in society.Â
The committee wants to embed career education in the classroom at all grade levels as well as to create partnerships with businesses, community organizations and the armed services to help students know what options are available after graduation.Â
Creating organizational support structures to enhance student success
The student support committee set a goal to develop a district-wide substance abuse prevention program as well as an intervention program for students with needs related to substance abuse.Â
The second goal for the group is to create a liaison role in each building to connect students to appropriate mental health resources.Â
A third goal for the group is to develop district-wide mentoring opportunities, and a fourth goal is to continue to grow the district’s thriving preschool program.Â
Quality staff teaching and learningÂ
The teaching and learning committee set a goal to identify district-wide educational initiatives, such as STEM education or 21st Century Skills.Â
Once those initiatives have been identified, the group wants to create a professional development plan to provide quality training for staff that will be both timely and relevant to the identified initiatives. The group also emphasized a need for choice within professional development offerings, as not all educators need the same training at the same time.Â
The third goal for the group is attracting and retaining high-quality teaching staff. Curriculum director Linda McKibben said the embracing quality initiatives and offering useful professional development goes hand in hand with attraction and retention of talented staff.Â
Facilities and infrastructure
The facilities group set a goal of addressing school safety. To that end, the committee wants to explore the possibility of adding a school safety and training officer to take responsibility for making the schools safe during the day and at events. This officer might be based at Edison Elementary, which group members identified as the most remote school building in the district.Â
The committee’s second goal is to continue with ongoing facilities upgrades in the district. The district plans to complete several updates this summer, including secure entrances at Taft and Edison schools, air conditioning at Taft and renovation of the grandstand at Community Stadium. Also planned for this year is the construction of a new field house adjacent to the stadium.Â
Following those projects, the district plans to add air conditioning at the high school (2019-2020). Other possible areas of renovations at the high school include the cafeteria, learning commons, restrooms, science classrooms, a special event entryway and girls locker rooms.Â
Moving forward, several members of the strategic planning core group said they would like to see a plan to assign goals to individuals and set time-frames for each goal to ensure accountability as the district works through its strategic plan. Â
Monday’s work session follows a strategic planning process that began in spring 2017, when a group of community members, district staff and administrators met to consider the district’s current status and its future.Â
The 47-member core team created the district’s new vision and mission statements, core values and goals. A copy of the strategic plan document is below.Â
