District D303 approved its new Five-Year Strategic Plan on June 29, 2023. This plan went into effect at the beginning of the current school year, and has the overarching goal to increase the success of students within the district.
The new plan was created by the Strategic Plan Development Committee, which was formed in September of 2022. The committee was made up of sixteen people, including teachers, support staff, administrators, board members, and even two high school students, one from North and one from East. They met twice a month to put together the plan, spending a little over nine months total on the process.
Within the new strategic plan, the committee encompassed their values as a district into a straightforward plan that they hope will improve our schools. Values such as perseverance, belonging and achievement were the main focuses. They centered on creating a plan that would fit with their commitment statement, “Together building pathways to excellence.”
“Our commitment statement really grounds us in what we’re trying to do for each and every one of our students, and gives us that pathway forward,” said Dr. Paul Gordon, D303 Superintendent.
Students throughout all of the district’s schooling opportunities were taken into account when making the plan. This means not only your traditional elementary, middle and high school, but also Pre-K programs and transition programs for ages 18-22. The goal of student success is applicable district-wide.
The plan was deemed necessary by Dr. Paul Gordon. It is his second year being the superintendent for D303, and he noticed there wasn’t an existing plan that looked ahead to the future.
“For me, as a superintendent, it’s really important to have a long-term vision of where we’re trying to go that allows the district to be focused on the outcomes we’re trying to achieve,” said Gordon.
Cooperation and collaboration are both key components for the success of the plan. For example, because of the newly integrated schedule of early release every Wednesday for the high schools, the high school teachers are able to use that time to collaborate and improve their own abilities, which then in turn helps the students.
In order to monitor the success of the plan, the district will look for certain success indicators.
“The success indicators [are] what we call our ABCs: attendance, behavior, and content,” said Gordon.
Attendance is a hugely stressed piece of this plan. Overall, the goal for attendance is 95% across all elementary, middle and high schools in the district. Students simply showing up to school will improve their learning and success. It is being more emphasized how missing a couple days of school here and there adds up quickly and debilitates you as a student.
Behavior is expected to be good, and content refers to rigorous courses. Essentially, students should be present, well-behaved and be learning content at or above their grade level.
In order to help see some of these success indicators, students will be given a five question poll every month. This survey will allow the district to use data to make improvements in the environment for students as well as give a general check-in.
“This strategic plan, at the end of the day, is all about our students. All about ‘how do we help each and every one of our students get to the pathways they want to go to?’” said Gordon.
