R-6 Board approves part of district’s strategic plan

After meeting with stakeholders and compiling survey results over the past few months, the Sikeston R-6 Board of Education has approved part of the district’s strategic plan.

In early summer, the Sikeston R-6 School District engaged consulting firm, GlennView of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to assist with its strategic planning process.

Before the R-6 Board approved part of the district’s strategic plan, Tracey and Jeff Glenn with GlennView were on hand to explain the strategic planning process during Tuesday’s regular monthly Board of Education meeting at Central Office in Sikeston.

“The district contracted with GlennView to assist in the creation of a strategic plan that would help guide the district through the next three years,” Jeff Glenn told the Board. “Recognizing the importance of stakeholder input, the district worked with GlennView to identify some key stakeholders to engage them in a conversation about the district.”

To do that, Glenn said, six different focus groups — students, parents, faculty/staff, administration, board and key community leaders — were identified to gather information from them in an effort to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that exist within the district.

“Those focus groups were conducted in the month of June, and in mid-July with information we gained from those focus groups and with a focus on key indicators in the Missouri School Improvement Program, or MSIP 6, we developed an online survey that we launched in the field,” Glenn said.

The online survey, which was open July 26-Aug. 9, had 64 questions and touched on topics including but not limited to: leadership; effective teaching and learning; collaborative climate and culture; database decision-making; alignment of standards, curriculum and assessment; and equity and access, according to Glenn.

“We were thrilled with the response rate we received,” Glenn said. “We received a total of 476 responses to the survey. Most of the respondents either identified as parents, which represented just under 50% of the survey responses, or faculty and staff which was right at 40% of the survey respondents.”

With those two groups dominating those responses, the results of the survey will have a bias toward parents and faculty and staff, Glenn told the Board.

Once information from the online survey was received, half-day strategic planning retreats were hosted from noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 14 and 8 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. Sept. 15 at Alan Wire in Sikeston.

“We had approximately 45 stakeholders from the district assembled over the course of those two half-day retreats to hammer out the strategic plan, which you now have,” Glenn told the Board.

Prior to those retreat days, participants received binders that included the results from the online survey as well as insights from both the focus groups and online surveys. Also included was MSIP6 information as well as some information about about comparative districts from around the state.

After explaining the process, Glenn then went over significant elements of the district’s strategic plan.

Part of this process included revising the district mission statement, Glenn said. So, he said, the mission statement now reads: “Educate today. Prepare for tomorrow.”

Glenn also explained the difference between the mission and vision.

“Mission is: ‘This is what we do.’ Vision is: ‘If we’re successful doing that, this is what our world looks like,’” Glenn said.

The vision statement participants in the room came up with during the retreat was: “A strong, inclusive, educated community.”

“We also went through an exercise with participants during the retreat where we took a look at core values,” Glenn said. “Core values for the district should provide a filter through which the district makes decisions and also access guardrails. If you think about the strategic plan being a road map, those core values guard rails to keep you from going off the side of the road as you’re moving toward your vision.”

The group identified the following core values: integrity, community, accountability, growth, education, collaboration, communication and excellence.

Lastly, the group came up with a series of objectives and goals, Glenn said.

“When I read through these, keep in mind, we had a plan to make sure the strategic plan dovetailed very nicely with your CSIP (Comprehensive School Improvement Plan) so we used the different strands in MSIP 6 to guide the discussion when it came to setting objectives,” Glenn said.

CSIP is the detailed plan of actions for accomplishing the district goals.

Glenn said the group created the following six objectives, which are the main components of Sikeston R-6’s strategic plan:

— Leadership objective: “We will focus on being responsible, transparent and consistent in engaging with all stakeholders.”

— Effective teaching and learning objective: “We will provide growth opportunities to prepare teachers and students for success.”

— Collaborative climate and culture objective: “We will provide opportunities for meaningful collaboration to establish clear academic and behavioral expectations for all stakeholders.”

— Data-based decision-making objective: “We will objectively collect accurate data and collaborate with appropriate stakeholders to guide decision making.”

— Alignment of standards, curriculum and assessment objective: “We will gather input from stakeholders to align curriculum with local, state and national standards and strengthen structures to provide a quality learning experience.”

— Equity and access objective: “We will improve equity and access to all school learning experiences and resources necessary for success.”

Sikeston R-6 Superintendent Shannon Holifield noted the group ran close on time during the retreat.

“Some feedback I received was there were still some things that we didn’t get discussed,” Holifield said, adding there are still some things to go over.

Holifield explained the Sikeston’s next steps with its CSIP. She said she, along with assistant superintendents Tiffany Morgan and Dr. Kimberley Blissett, have met twice with Dr. Jim Welker, director of the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center, which is aiding the district with its CSIP.

“We’re working toward tweaking and looking at our action steps,” Holifield said. “We will then put together a group of administrators/instructional coaches through the district leadership team and pull one from each of our building-level leadership teams to complete our action steps. Then we’ll come back together with our huge strategic retreat group of 45 folks and lay out what we feel like the next steps will be to address and to progress toward meeting those goals.”

At that time, they’ll also spend discuss some of those items they didn’t get to at the retreat, Holifield said.

“We want to be very transparent with our CSIP. We heard our stakeholders. We have addressed each need and concern through our objectives, but we want them to see our next steps. We want them to agree with our next steps,” Holifield said.

The superintendent noted she is working very closely with the district’s consultant for its continuous improvement.

“We are putting together a dashboard of data for CSIP. We’re pulling from that binder, from our comments, our survey results and focus groups to complete some data that you all, our community and staff can see as we progress through this year,” Holifield told the Board.

The goal, Holifield said, is to complete the strategic plan by bringing to the Board the CSIP in its entirety in December or January.

“The great thing about the action steps is the district has a template to be able to record those action steps,” Glenn said. “At the end of these three years, if someone were to ask you, you’ll be able to turn over volumes of different action steps taken over the last three years. You can say: ‘This is what we did. It wasn’t just an exercise. We actually used it to help guide district decisions and actions through the course of three years.’

He continued: “It’s a living document and excellent way to track your progress, but it also becomes a testimonial to your commitment to your strategic plan.

The Board commended GlennView for their assistance with developing the plan.

“It’s the people who were in that room (at the retreat) and the people in those focus groups and who participated in the online surveys — they’re the ones who deserve the praise for the finished product,” Glenn said. “We were merely facilitators of that process.”

The strategic planning process has been a great experience, Holifield said. There have been some great conversations, she said.

“I feel like we’re on the right track,” the superintendent said. “We do have some work to do. We know that. If you don’t recognize a problem, you can’t fix a problem, and we have some things we are working on to make good on that.”