Updating the districts vision and mission

How to develop or update a school district vision and mission?

The process would be:

1.  A task force would need to be created that would be trained, help facilitate the community forum, narrow the ideas to streamlined priorities, and communicate the process and recommendation.

Task force members would include community parents and non-parents, staff from each school both teachers and non-teachers, candy business leaders, administrators, and board members.

2.  Awareness and input would be sought through a staff survey and a community listening sessions.  The listening sessions or community forum should be led by an outside non biased source with help from the task force. This source could be an administrator from a different district who has done this process previously or a private firm. 

These community forums would be held in all three of the towns Galesville, Ettrick, and Trempealeau. Ideas would be brainstormed on two topics or questions

1. What could impact education in the future?

2. What the community wants from their schools?

The ideas of what the stakeholders desire will be streamlined into priorities by the task force.

3. The task force would have a retreat to create 4 to 6 priority subgroups to meet monthly to discuss the scenarios and information from the community forums and survey to narrow the information into areas that would have the most impact on the delivery of education the future. 

4. Communication with the stakeholders of the district would need to be drafted following these meetings on what the scenarios tell us, what we need to succeed, and community wants and desires. The information within this communication would show the need to move from good to great.

5. The subgroups would reconvene and develop recommendations of district priorities, a district mission, and a district vision.

6. This would lead to the implementation phase. The board of education we need to:

1. Examine, select and approve action plans created with duties and timelines. 

2. Implemented quarterly reflections of what is being done and if the district is on task. 

3. Commit to a five-year reevaluating of the process. 

This effort will allow the administration and the Board of Education to make decisions and be held accountable to the stakeholders priorities that strategically align to the vision and mission of the district.

My example and current involvement started with conversations that lead to the email below:

Over the past few years I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with staff, parents and our community. Conversations centered around student achievement weather in the classroom or in  Co-curricular activities. One point that was embedded within each of those conversations was a pride in G-E-T, yet no one could answer the question of what's the vision or what do they want G-E-T to be in the future.

Despite a shared pride in the district and a desire for success, Roadblocks will continue to exist if we don't have a shared vision of where were going. A shared vision and mission will provide guidance in decision-making to allow us to move from good to great. These conversations may lead us to difficult conversations about the way we think about learning and the way we deliver instruction. I believe we need a new model for education that is better suited to prepare all students to be successful in a 21st-century workforce.

After many internal discussions about what direction the district was going the board decided to create a survey. This survey was given to staff to help understand and create an awareness of our needs. This survey indicated:

- 50% felt they were informed about their buildings

- 29% felt they were informed about the district. 

- 25% feel their informed about board goals

- 37% feel they are included in decisions  

- 36% feel communication is good. 

However 

- 80 to 90% feel their work is meaningful and enjoy their job

- 64% feel their supervisors expectations are realistic. 

Yet 

- Only 20% feel morale is high and 

- Only 30% have the time to complete all the initiatives.

This led to conversations at the administrative team and the Board of Education level.  These difficult conversations lead to blaming everything from the survey questions being poorly written, to the timing being ill-advised. These discussions led to the development of a promotions committee. The committee consisted of three board members, two principles and the superintendent. This group was tasked with looking at the responses to the survey and creating a set of priorities based on the feedback.

In my opinion, I believe this was the point that we should've brought an outside source and had community involvement.  All we have for information is the survey from the teachers. This is only a partial glance at the opinions of the district stakeholders. 

The process is very scattered in it's evolution. The priorities created by the group included more of a to-do list for administration than guidance for decision-making for the future or setting a vision and mission for the district. This is due to the committee being driven by a directive to solve a problem instead of engage in a process.

We have set three goals which include:

1. Setting a brand standard for the district

2. Creating a media kit to communicate the stories of the district to potential residence.

3. Developing postcard mailings with district information to send out to current stakeholders.

Continuous improvement

Based on my readings and understanding that continuous improvement is thinking about what we do and seeking ways to do it even better. I attended our school board meeting last Monday looking for evidence of continuous improvement.  I noticed the following at the board meeting:

1.     The superintendent asked for input from administrators during meetings when the information pertaining to something they were involved in or produced. 

2.     Building reports were used to celebrate successes

3.     Reports from committees on ways to improve. 

4.     Data was presented by the director of instruction on assessment scores.

Things that were not noticed or could be different:

1.     Further discussion on the assessment data presented could have been beneficial. As superintendent, I would have led further discussion with the board, focused on what we have in place and what we are planning to continue to affect the scores that were presented. This would give us a chance to get feedback from the board.

2.     There was no feedback on initiatives. With us currently going through so many initiatives from RTI, PBIS, educator effectiveness, etc. I think there needs to be some open dialogue with the school board about where we are with initiatives. This would provide transparent evidence of what work is being done by administration and what work were asking our staffs to do. This also will give viable information to help them make decisions.

3.     There is very little input or participation from the community. As superintendent, I would implement "listening" sessions.  These would be 30 to 45 minute discussions held prior to the formal board meeting. The agenda would have a particular topic of budget, staffing, facilities, or anything that is part of the district strategic plan. However, the sessions could branch out into anything that the community would like to discuss with the board. These discussions would help to connect to the community and inform the board of education what the communities interests are when making decisions.

I'm a firm believer that good decisions depend on good information. It is the superintendent’s job as the leader of the school board to make sure they have the best information. A superintendent may need to ask school board what data they need and in what format to hope them the more efficient and effective.

Peter Block’s Community “Takeaways”

Community - The Structure of Belonging

By: Peter Block

Takeaway #1

Community is about belonging to and being a part of something. The essential challenge is to transform form self-interest to connected and caring. This is difficult according to Block due to us living in an age of isolation. He states, "we talk of how small our world has become with instant sharing of information and quick technology, yet these do not necessitate a sense of belonging. The cost of this isolation is that many members of our communities gifts go untapped."

Takeaway #2

Social Capitol - the acting on and valuing interdependence. Putnam found that this interdependence or social capitol was that main factor in community well-being (educational achievement, economic strength, etc). Community well being had to do with the quality of relationship, lies within the power of being together and is a collective effort not an individual one.

Takeaway #3

There is a great importance in asking the right questions, balancing input and dialogue. As a leader, there is also a need to structure how we meet to find a way to give people a voice. All people must have a voice to allow for ownership, which creates accountability and commitment from the group not the leader. People inherently believe more fully in something they had a hand in creating.

Takeaway #4

To make a real difference we need to operate differently to avoid or move out of being "stuck". We need to think transformationally, to look at existing information in a way that leads to new conversations that produce new solutions.  We are a society of wanting to blame, so romanticizing leadership is easy to do so that we can blame someone or expect them swoop in and fix things. We need to move from those in power or leadership solving the problem to creating a process to allow the community or group to have input to the solution of the problem. Creating an environment to provide input and set structure to not allow anyone to grandstand or dominate conversation.

As we move forward how do we build the community capital that will allow the community as a whole to solve the right problems in a collaborative manner. We need to avoid trying to fix the problem first, and identify the cause and the possibilities of the problem remaining focuses on the people and process not the problem.

How will you use the principles embedded in his book as you lead in the future

Reflecting on my leadership career, I found myself thinking of many stories of positive and negative things that have taken place around Block's ideas of community. The main theme in my reflections was when ideas or initiatives were successful they always came form a ground roots discussion that allowed multiple people a voice in the development, implementation and accountability of the endeavor. I've also realized that identifying a problem is as important as the problem itself.  The two ways I have will continue to discover a need for change include pre-year meetings and “between the bells” discussions.  Pre-year meeting are an invitation to staff to gain an understanding of the mood, culture, areas of concern, and areas of success. I ask they bring their view of what the district is doing right (minimum 3 positives) and how to maintain or grow these items; their view of what in the district is not working (minimum 3 negatives) and constructive solutions to these issues; and any items the wish to bring to my attention.  “Between the bells” is an open meeting I’ve held for 30 minutes after school to discuss what problems we are having and possible solutions to them.  Both of these allow everyone a voice in the direction of the building.  This also gives me insight into those that are eager and potential naysayers.  Both need to be leveraged for support and opinion.  Once a problem that needs attention is identified, we implement the best-perceived solution in a piloting phase that is articulated to all stakeholders.  There also needs to be an open channel of feedback because change can be feared if it isn’t supported through evidence of it’s effectiveness and a willingness to trust that if things do not work adjustments will be made. Our “Friday Night Lights” and “Extended Learning Time” both evolved from this method of evoking change.  “Friday Night Lights” is a positive, timely and continual communication aimed at bridging the gap between the school and the community while promoting achievement. This has provided a platform to celebrate and express our pride. “Extended Learning Time” is an intensive academic enhancement/enrichment where students may be requested to for additional assistance or instruction, enrichment, to make up missing work, to tutor other students, for completion of group work, or for lessons. Students who make good choices and are succeeding academically and are not requested are allowed to sign in to the commons, the library, the computer lab, or have honors release. 

Both of these endeavors have build trusting relationship in our school that everyone has a voice and a responsibility in creating an enjoyable work environment and a culture of continual improvement focused on improving student learning.