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Strategic Plan Webinar

Added Apr 22, 2024 •

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Here is the webinar link and slides to the webinar we held last Thursday on the draft strategies and actions in the strategic plan. Thank you to those that were able to join us live and thank you to all of the members of the Steering Committee for your efforts over the last nine months! This is a guiding document that, once finalized, will be used by all schools.

Show Transcript

you want to get started in about 1 minute robbed that sound right. Sounds good sounds good you have you know we did say 5 so that we could get through and folks would still have time to have dinner so that's why we were planning to do it a little bit earlier how do you say are you a meeting last night I did that the second meeting of the three yes Stephanie was there I never got any of my Stephanie Melissa I'm sorry Lester was there I never got any information about it let me investigate that and figure out why that I don't have a I've heard you say that so I just went through all my emails my did I miss something let me double-check that I'll make a note of that Kevin yeah sure ride my pimp area you guys schedule the third meeting yet I won't be no to Hotel May 2nd or May 2nd another one in May 2nd yeah I'll make sure you get all sorted out tomorrow okay sounds good what do you know what time it is rough start 6 p.m. thank you I left the baseball game last night it was 221 we down to win 11 to 1 so that was a good good game all right so it's a little bit more than a minute and I don't see anyone else in the waiting room right now so I'm going to go ahead and get us started for those who'd in late may not be aware I'm sure you heard when you came in that we are recording this and the reason Marie we are recording it is so that folks who are not able to be here now we'll put it up on our website so but they can watch this and have access to all the information that being share tonight at a time where they are able to look at it and have access to the information that we're sharing tonight so thank you all for being here tonight I'm really grateful that you were able to make the time one of the things that we wanted to do is to share our draft of our strategies and our action steps that we've been working on over the last couple of months after we got to a point with a portrait of a graduate in our value statement where we felt that we were able to move that that second piece forward the steering committee which I believe our next slide will kind of give you an idea of who was involved on the steering committee we had 37 folks that came from a lot of different slices of Life bad haven't getting dressed in public education in particularly our school so I've got a 37 members on a steering committee as many of you can probably imagine is a lot and you know if I had to start over do it again I would probably have 37 members again because they gave us a really good representation of key stakeholder groups as we were going through all of the data that came in from Community out which which will get into more detail about we were getting different perspectives and having voices from different different mindsets that actually made the work a lot more meaningful and tangible and how you're going to be received from different just different types of folks in our school system so you know it was important that we had those voices at the table we had students that were very active you know a lot of credit to students when you're in a room with a bunch of adults talking high-level work you know sometimes they might be a little bashful about engaging but the students were absolutely engaged they brought a lot of great thoughts to the conversation in fact there was one student who was so impressed that something that she proposed for language actually had made it through into a party portrait of a graduate that you know she felt real strong ownership and pride that not only did she contribute but she was heard and that's what move forward because it's what made the most sense so really proud of the work that the steering committee did over the course then we started late June and here we are late April it's been a long path and we wouldn't have been able to do this without our partners great school partnership in so it's my pleasure to introduce to you one of our leads from grade schools Partnerships Leah tuchman who's going to walk us through the rest of tonight's presentation Leah over to you thank you so much Rob it's so nice to see so many members of the committee actually here on this call supporting this work it's you know it's could not have gotten done without them and I wouldn't never done but we're getting very close to the end which feels really nice this is just a very brief overview of the timeline that we've been using over the past year so we really laid down the foundation of this work back over the summer knowing that we needed to establish a committee and plan for engagement and we talked talked about engagement we talkin about Community engagement so thinking about how to gather input from our community members how to synthesize the data and then identify some broad theme that come up and develop around the data moving on beyond the sort of speaking in analyzing Community input we get to this idea of drafting the portrait of a graduate and then writing a mission statement and a value statement that was that was something we took we took part in over the winter and then moving into late winter and early spring we actually begin digging into the Strategic plan so tonight we're going to be spending most of our time digging into the strategies and actions apps that have been outlined in the Strategic plan and just a reminder that there have been 37 committee members that have really worked hard volunteered their time to be on each of the subcommittee's of the difference this area's and so we really want to honor their work by giving them some strong feedback this evening so our agenda for tonight we're going to give a brief overview as we're doing now we're hoping that won't take more than 15 minutes so that you have a good chunk of time to review the strategies and action steps at which point will transition into questions and comments and hopefully we can provide you with some answers but will certainly be taking notes on all of the feedback that you provide us with I'm with a brief closing at the end so I'm going to keep moving along because we do have a bunch of slides to to sort of get through before we get into the Strategic plan itself so how did we collect community and put I think this is a really important place to start we had four questions that we created as a committee and those four questions were a little bit tiered for adults versus students but for the most part very sick really about what skills and experience is in tools kids need to to sort of be successful we just ask people that what what do you what do you what are your hopes and dreams for our young people and what skills Frances in tools do you think are necessary to answer those two to get to those goals questions one and two were very focused on the portrait of a graduate but questions three and four underneath are what we use to help. our strategic plan so in what ways do you think sau29 currently helping students and in what ways do you think we could be doing a better job so again these are the the four questions that we asked everybody and we didn't both through surveys as well as focus group so survey wise we had 996 completed surveys Rob thinks it's over 1,000 that that number might be a bit of a low Ball but a pro simile 1000 surveys were were collected so you can see here the breakdown of the surveys and and sort of who who respond it was 53% of surveys completed by parents and caregivers 21% Educators 16% students so it's really it's sometimes nice to get an understanding of who responded and then be on those surveys we also had community so we asked the same four questions in the community forums and just took scrupulous notes while those questions were being asked again nine of those Community forums took place or mostly held in the month of October deals forever ago at this point and once we a corrugated all of the data and that includes data from both the surveys and the focus questions we were able to then bucket some of the different things that emerged so as I mentioned questions 1 in to help us form our portrait of a graduate and we had five themes emerge when we bucketed them what is the portrait of a graph I get that question a lot like why are we even doing this work it's supposed to articulate our Collective hopes and dreams that we have for our students and then once we can identify that one of those skills and attributes that all students need to be able to do to be prepared for life it also is going to guide our district-wide strategic planning and instructional decision making the Strategic plan on the other hand is more of the pow okay so porch of a graduates kind of the what strategic plan is the how what strategies in action steps can we use to accomplish this so it's going to articulate the goals of our organization and the actions needed to achieve those goals it's going to highlight our mission statement connect to our core values and when we bucket it all up data for themes emerged I keep saying we I'm talking about these 37 committee members that represent a broad swath of the community let's dig into the Strategic plan that's really our goal for tonight when we bucket it all of the themes data we came up with for Focus areas Partnerships for learning safe positive and inclusive environment ladies access and Pathways and high-quality Educators so our our committee then broke up into four subcommittees and each people got to weigh in on what their preferences and each subcommittee then work play tirelessly honestly to come up with these strategies and action steps as well as ways to sort of progress monitor to make sure we're accomplishing the items were saying we're going to accomplish so before we do anything else right on target which is nice I didn't want to go over with this point I want to stop and see if there any initial questions about the data collection process how we got to this point and then in a moment we're going to actually take some time to read over the strategies in action steps questions before we do that looks like jbm has a question so let's start with j b m and then Susan you can you can jump in next I just want to make sure I can you differentiate between data collection and input from the public no because that that is the data we collected was the but from the public so I can't differentiate because I'm I'm f****** them together so when we're saying we're collecting data we're collecting data in the form of surveys from the public and focus groups are Community forums from the Publix doll public input that we collect it does that answer your question Jeff thank you Susan you had your hand up next my name is Susan and I have a question about I want to see if I'm correct it's at 4% of Staff members only answered the survey is that correct and also I was interested in knowing what staff were out committee absolutely no it does not mean that 4% let me go back to that slide I'm going to share again give me one moment so what it means actually is that 4% of all respondents staff members not that 4% of Staff members responded does that make sense that sounds more complicated than it actually it does make sense because my primary question is how you tell is kind of what the process was for involving all the staff and developing this plan because I think Research indicates that there's a strong correlation between a high level of Staff participation in creating a strategic plan and its success implementation can you speak to how many staff we did have a lot of teachers with K to 12 and even higher ed on the can you speak to that Rob here's including heads of Union who are part of the steering committee and ample opportunities went out to all staff members through multiple email Communications from our internal SIU email back in September with the survey reminders for all of the community forums encouraging them to engage in to participate then I can go back probably and find out the number of communications inviting folks to dissipate how many there were but there was absolutely no more than 10 if not closer to 20 emails that went out to folks inviting them to participate not just our staff but even through our communication system from the SAU we utilized social-media we were put into the Sentinel on multiple occasions with the work advertising some of our community forums as well so they were a lot of public notice that went out you know I get it not everybody has Facebook not everybody reads the newspaper we were on the radio with it as well so we get as many media platforms as we possibly could time to get the message out we encourage people to share the information as well and you know we got the returns that we got okay and their questions before we take a little time to review the document Val do you want to ask one last question before we jump into the document I just wanted to clarify so Val Sherry principal Marvel School I just asked a question about data and knowing just I'm just thinking that he's probably looking for what else you looked at so if you were talking about collecting data from the committee also consider collected from the exit you about discipline attendance test for us all of that data was considered as a working through action stuff but the days that we collected from the answers to those questions so I can I'm guessing that Jeff was looking for it to be considered some of those hard data points as well thank you for that clarification yes we certainly considered other data points we reviewed each actually week show you a bit later if it's helpful each subcommittee had their own data sources that they reviewed when creating their strategies and action steps and those data sources can also be used to monitor progress so I guess we can definitely get into that I bet more if it's helpful but Val thank you for clarifying okay so what I'd love to do now is take about 10 minutes if that's all right with you two have you really dig into this documents oh I know I know that Rob has sent this out in advance he also just placed it in the chat for you to look through but this document really is it's got our portrait of a graduate at the top which you can see our five buckets right it's also got our mission statement that we've created as a team and then the real meat and potatoes that were trying big into tonight are the the subcommittee focus areas so that again as we mentioned opportunities access and Pathways you'll see the strategies and action steps highlighted below then we've got high quality educators the strategies and action steps highlighted below stay positive inclusive environments and then finally Partnerships for learning so what I'd like to do is just everybody turn off their screens for 10 minutes and at 5:30 we're going to come back together and discuss I recognize this is a lot it's an 8-page document which is why we're really going to take 10 silent minutes right now. so I will see you all at 5:30 all right if people feel like that was enough time please come back and and join us for what I think is the most important part of our together which is really getting some questions answered getting some feedback written down I'm wondering eka can you will you be okay taking notes tonight for us that we can then that's a bit later as a group I can do that thank you it all right so I'm going to share my screen again and just have the Strategic plan for us to look at again this is a drafted final but when you ask a question or make a comment I want to be able to go to that strategy and that action steps so we can look at it together so at this point we're really opening up the discussion curious to hear from you what are some of your thoughts I'll start Lea am I okay I'm not on mute actually the thing that I appreciated the most about this process was that we didn't try to rush it that we took our time that we were intentional in terms of getting feedback of getting input considering the data sources that came in from from our stakeholders as well as the data sources that bow referenced earlier I think that that has been reflected in what we have been able to put together and it is given us some pretty clear guidance on things that are important to our communities remember this isn't just one Community this is 7 different communities that have been participating throughout the entire process and so I I'm pretty excited about that and that the inputs that came in or not been centered on one town over another town but it was actually a compliation of input that came in from several different places that ended up where we landed so thanks Rob Jeff do you want to jump in neck yeah not with a specific comment but just want to clarify and confirm that there is an opportunity to provide what's a more thoughtful and in-depth reactions in writing subsequent to this and if you could clarify the process so the timing of the feedback process before this is finalized I know that there was a ton of shuttle back and forth about a portrait of a graduate if I recall the calendar for feedback and finalization of the strategy itself is fairly short but maybe you guys can can clear that up yep so I put that put the feed channel into the chat and I mean just make sure it is live before yeah it is live now and is accepting responses so that's there and the window on that how is it is shorter window because we're getting this prepared to present to the SAU Advisory board for May 1st the next revisions and so we open up this window until April 23rd which gives the through the weekend into the early part of next week and based on what comes in will Circle up again and make updates based on some of the input that we receive to present to the SAU Advisory Board which are the chairs of the seven districts in the SAU thanks for that question Jeff does anyone else want to try Min with a question or a comment or feedback Jay yes we'd love to hear from you Jay you're muted made it to her thanks for picking up on the title of Rob so this is it's looking like it's gone through it do you know what's a good thing to see lol product it's worthy of community input at this point I'm wondering it first sausage if we offer state now we're suggestions now that we don't need to duplicate that with a response a written response need to fill out the form that Rob dropped in the chat if you also but if you remember later that you had something you didn't get to weigh in on you can still do a second form of feedback with the Google I may just you just might motivate me again so three things that struck me one is no statement about counseling or guidance student guidance and maybe it's better than some of the other suggestions but I just think that coaching students not just at the transition points between elementary and middle school and middle school to high school High School to college but also helping students along the way and guide of path curriculum path to their destination soon. Just surprised not to see something more about it the second is the experiment that I think school district has been using relative to restorative justice does application Beyond just education we see it being applied and other kinds of places where there are victims and I don't know navigate to the school district's experience with it but it sounds to me from Community input that has had a positive reaction from these parents that I've talked to has a certain thing that I'd say something that I've seen from the city's perspective of Serena's mayor in the city there is a citizen sign up much like a Facebook page is but there's push of information I signed up on Facebook I don't know how many pages I've signed up for in the in the school district but I never get a communication or bullets and it tells me I'll go look at the site never that it's yes surprising to you just playing for me anyway that's just my experience it's all I can say and that book from the city's perspective what I've experienced do you know Siri job opening I get the listing of the job opening if there is a public works closure or salamander Crossing or whatever it may be that they need to alert the community to a change in what you normally experience it is communicated out now for me it's I'd love to see they have I schedule the Arts and performance schedules of the district you know I'd be a consumer but when I saw your your number for you know how to how to push more information orally try to be more communicative to me it's it's more don't just make me have to go to the website please push stuff to me I'm annoying consumer and want to do that last thing I'd say as much as you can do to create a positive environment with staff is just so crucial that there's such a desire for for that kind of attention yeah. The highlights ask is that I think a lot of the communication is a lot of ways that we shape our opinions of the school is from the staff and that's that's so it's worthy of the whatever investment it takes thank you all of these pieces of feedback were really excellent I personally like the first one I'm actually surprised that there isn't anything written in about counselors or social where is that I was looking at as you could see from my screen I was looking at the the one that surrounding sort of like a safe and healthy learning environment and you're right I didn't see it there great feedback Americana I was going to defer to George or orega would regard to Communications because there is something that is actually already in process that I would I am speak to on behalf of the entire SAU if they'd be so willing I'm willing to bet I'll let George go first I'm taking notes so but if he's busy just knows Jay that the SAU has been in process and has now engaged a new provider so that we have a much more robust and proactive communication platform one that engage has literally everything that you brought up with regards to communication highly accessible highly monitored highly collaborative and collective in its efforts to have access to everything going on with us 29 or schools so it's in the works I think it is an important piece of what we talked about quite a bit at the strategic planning table and it showed in our data it's funny because I think superintendent malaise data might say that he gets more complaints about spending too much stuff out and that people are tired of getting it and tired of reading it and I hear it a lot too about everything that goes out because not everyone is as interested or is willing a consumer but I think that the new relationship that we're going to have with our provider and the the breadth of what they're able to serve us with and serve our community with will be welcome whether you want the information or not because it's going to be so much more available transparent at the ready and organized in a way that makes it really digestible and accessible so again I work in progress but we're very close to launching that and I think that that will help a lot I am looking at the notes just to make sure I hit on all of it and then if you have any other questions I think George if if he's off mute certainly should be good then Roberts there's anything you can add to that please do I'm going to move now and keep taking notes and I've got to try and get my dinners that I can Samuel tap thanks for grabbing that I got I'm on a new laptop and I was having trouble and eating correctly I think what I just said is absolutely correct and and part of brain on our new partner for communications we're going to be looking at our entire Communications system how we send information out who we sent to looking at potential new avenues for getting information out but we've known from the get-go that to make this strategic plan successful implementation and communication once it's finalized is going to be key if we don't if we don't do that it's just going to be a document yeah we spent nine months preparing and and didn't really do anything with so and I think the initial plan is going to be getting it out to the boards and the boards are going to be helping to get that out to our individual school districts and schools but for this to be successful I really need to to leverage everybody that's involved at the bottom you know get the schools involved in communicating with their families will have to figure out how to connect with the broader community and there's pieces embedded in a lot of these action steps that will be looking to do that too but I think he makes an excellent point that communicating this out is going to be Kate when I think we recognize that. That'll be one of our next steps yeah so the broader Community piece of it I think with our new partner is going to be solved because our current provider only allows us to send messages out to those that are in our student management system meaning parents who have their details that are in put in their staff whose details are in put in there but it doesn't include somebody who might have an interest in the community but our new our new provider is going to have have an application that folks can opt into and get push notification get access to calendars get access to the school menu if you want you want to see what they're eating at lunch on a given day you'll be able to do and so it will actually broaden that that reach that we have right now are messages go out to 5,000 people and once this is put in place and we're looking toward the end of toward the end of the summer sometime in early August I think is when that process will be complete folks will have a lot better opportunity to engage in to see what's happening so I'm pretty excited about that thank you George thing do I go for capturing that so that I just me saying it's more people that are saying that what other questions comments feedback do you have for us I have a question yes Alex John pastry lying to be for he talks about Community Partners who are this Community Partners you see oh yeah yeah so currently we have existing Partnerships with organizations throughout the entire essay you some who are actually on this call it as well for example we have Partnerships with Keene State College we've got partnership Keene housing kids collaborative we've got a partnership with high five multiple Partnerships in all of us across all of our buildings the YMCAs in another partner I'm so we're looking at how the New Hampshire dance Institute another one you know they just keep popping up as of going but there are several partners that already exist and so the thought there and I would defer to some of the folks who were on that specific focus group was to look at how we might be able to create a create additional opportunities for Community Partnerships to strengthen the learning that goes on in school Beyond just the regular grind of teaching and learning in the classroom setting but also expanding not to make it a little bit more focused in and I don't want to say entertaining but I'm excited for students bringing it to life which we done with some of our partners on the Harrisville Center is another one of our very active partners that we have across all of our school so that answer your question sir yes. you know we actually I could stay on the Partnerships for a long time just wasn't anticipating that question you know even with law enforcement with City officials and McKean those Partnerships exist like the Keene rec center we interact with quite frequently for facility use sharespace and create opportunities so several things come to mind but the idea is to what what's not put a limit on that let's continue to explore new opportunities that make sense I've got one quick one if that's okay because I know you're trying to use up empty time here I think you know we need to think about our audience for this document and I think I'm out of jargon and they might have terms that are not going to be comprehensible isn't really acceptable yeah can you give us some examples of specific words that we could come up with some synonyms for that would eat be better better digested by the community well there are other things that doesn't mean I like Ela which probably everybody working on this knows what it means my bed is a lot of people out there don't know what I'm plc's MTS sartini thought of attention to the United 9,000 people found it to us a community I think we need to try to speak their language when we go out when we go back to them I mean I don't think anybody we want to read this should be able to read it and understand exactly what we're saying I need to get an explanation on a call or look it up in the acronym dictionary on the sou website or anything like that so you know I just say you know maybe test it out with somebody you dragged off the street picture that can play it all back to you that's an awesome point in and you know what I'm glad you mentioned that because you know when you're putting stuff together you you put it in there and you think we've got to go back and spell it out we should have just spelled it in the first place you're absolutely right so appreciate that feedback that's a really good point we're guilty of adding education tenfold this is a very very helpful so I appreciate the comments that are being made and then if you have other thoughts you've got the link I I dropped in the chat that you can add additional comments at any time so it's not like a look you're done this is it you don't get another chance to give us any put we do ask that you get that info do us by April 23rd so that when we do get back together before we meet with the Advisory Board you know we'll have an opportunity to go through the input and then make some updates that's going to make the Red Sox going to make this stronger feedback your comments your input is only going to make for a stronger final product and so I appreciate what folks have said and have shared I know a good took some notes down you have another opportunity with that with that link that's in the chat so that you can add additional thoughts or comments at your leisure as well as long as we get it before we get back together and find to some of inputs that come in I think it's only going to be a document that we can all be really happy about and I think that was a goal from the get-go was to have something that reflects what our community has spoken up in his cell important and put that in the practice and provide for the kids that we serve ultimately that's who this is for you and you know I know maricon you know you reference to having having a staff that are supported in feel feel good about where they're working that's a part of the puzzle right that's a piece of the puzzle that provides for our students because ultimately that's who we're providing for any other questions comments or feedback I think we probably have time for one more before we wrap up together but as Rob mentioned we are open to feedback Beyond tonight so I just have a question about next steps so which would provide feedback by the 23rd and then the group The Advisory Group is coming together and then what is the soda plan here at the draft plan what will be will the final product sort of look similar or what's the what's the next step after we present to the Advisory board on May 1st we will finalize the document for all of the school board's in the essay you to consider adopting and approving the Strategic plan for their districts did that answer your question Liza yeah and I guess I'm just thinking this point I appreciate what Jeff said about Morgan and acronyms and all of that and I think it's really important and some just also thinking is there at like it may be there ends up being two different strategic plan documents one that has more language in it for schools and school boards and teachers and administrators and then is there this like other one that's a little bit pared-down for people who don't want to or can't invest as much time and reading but are interested in getting the password of cliff notes of of what this is I would think that would be a good idea this is Kevin from Westmoreland as long as that wouldn't something Wouldn't Get Lost in Translation. Be my only concern overall reading same document resin there's two versions of the document Leah could I could I step in there we we actually have talked about this in some of the earlier meetings Malia and Michelle presented to us some of the reports that have gone out for other districts then we looked at those and then looked at what we thought would work here and what we thought maybe wouldn't work here and what we've been kicking around in a we're a ways from presenting the final report still but it is kind of a I hesitate to say executive summary because that kind of points back to using jargon again but you know it and easily digestible almost splash page or a couple of pages that just says this is you know this is what we're doing this is what we want everyone to know that we've achieved and then you know maybe on the websites and maybe distributed the people that have to actually Implement things that much more detailed version that includes not just the the key goals that were looking for a bit also the steps that we're taking how to measure those little successes so I think we are thinking of a two tiered approach and then absolutely Jeff's point about the jargon that needs to not be on what we're Masters tributing everywhere we need this to be something that you know you're you're which parent even even your average teacher that's not immersed in this you know folks out in the broader Community can look at and say okay this makes sense I understand what it is they're trying to go and where they're trying to go and how they're trying to get there thank you and I just also didn't want to lose Heather put put a question in the chat box yeah Lea answered that as well so Heather's question was how many years will this plan cover and they open the answer is 5 years doesn't mean that it won't shift any during those five years but as things get accomplished there might be new things that come up but the goal is to to work through this plan over the course of the next five years thank you George and Rob for those answers other questions before we sign off for the night Westland just want to say you know who knows to the all the folks that also helped put this together and this is as a parent this is a pretty awesome document at least she's showing this FAU is undo all that they can to move into the right direction also Italy what's going to be best for our students in their life in school and Beyond so just wanted to throw that out there now this is obviously been a long time coming and a lot of work over the last you're so so stalked by my ex thanks Kevin I think that's a really nice note to sort of wrap up on Kevin I appreciate that and I know the committee. I think it shows how committed they are by how many of them showed up tonight to support to support us in sort of bringing this to the community so thank you to our committee members that are here thank you to all of you for coming one last thing before you sign us off completely and you can you stop sharing your screen so we get the the Hollywood Square version of everyone on here we asked everybody who on the call that is been helping with this process to turn your camera on and everyone else so you don't keep them off just so folks folks are able to see some of the folks that this isn't the entire steering committee they're the ones who able to be here tonight they're the ones who have been working over the last 9-10 months do you know and for me to all of you I want to say thank you because it's not an easy path it's not an easy Road when you're trying to get collect input of this magnitude and put it all together at the end of the day they're always going to be folks who think that some things are not the way they want it but you guys have worked really really hard to try it make it digestible for everybody and so your work is greatly appreciated throughout this journey and I all of the all of the data sessions that we've been in all of the the grueling mindset the wordsmithing and everything else has been truly truly appreciate it so I just wanted to take a moment to recognize you in to say thank you for your efforts thank you everyone we'll Circle back with more of a draft next time I buy

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