Woodland District 50 is Working With New Strategic Plan
After numerous hours of discussions and information gathering over seven months, Woodland District 50 is working with a new strategic plan in place for 2018 through 2023.
"Strategic plans are meant to focus the district's energy on what is important to our school community. We want to assure those who gave of their time and talents that we will follow the new plan for Woodland's future," said Board President Dr. Carla Little.
Early in the process, the Board of Education approved a new mission statement describing what Woodland District 50 is and a vision statement of what Woodland District 50 aspires to be.
The new mission statement is: Woodland District 50 empowers our children to reach their potential by providing exceptional learning experiences that foster critical thinking in a nurturing learning environment. The new vision is: Together, inspiring tomorrow's creators, thinkers and leaders.
More than 1,200 community members, staff and students participated in creating the plan with goals focused on the following topics: Student Learning, Student Well-Being, Finance/Facilities, Staff Recruitment/Development, and Community Relations/District Pride.
Each topic developed by the Board of Education was at the core of focus group discussions with 65 stakeholders that included seventh and eighth grade students, parent groups, PTA. community officials, teachers and administrators. Those same topics were used to build a 31-question community survey completed by more than 1,000 respondents.
Ensuring student opinions were gathered was of utmost importance to the district as the students are day-to-day consumers of the schools. Sixteen seventh and eighth grade students participated in the focus area study groups held in October. The students openly shared their views on the use of technologies in the classroom, additional programming and events they would like to see offered, additional promoting of the school through social media, the pride they have in their teachers as well as other points. In November, 22 engaged and insightful students ranging from 6th grade to seniors in high school participated in the community committee. Their conversations and contributions were outstanding. They were leaders in driving conversations throughout the process.
Information from the community survey and focus group data was used to plan the two meetings in November. A total of 91 community members, that included parents and non-parents as well as the students, attended to discuss their views on what is important to the future of Woodland District 50.
"The thoughtful conversations and the willingness to volunteer time from such a broad cross-section of stakeholders in our community was truly impressive. We called upon the community to help us create a roadmap for the future and they responded wholeheartedly," said Superintendent Dr. Joy A. Swoboda.
Consultant Dr. Bob Madonia, who has worked with several other school districts on strategic planning, facilitated the process at Woodland. Participants who completed surveys following the community member meetings overwhelmingly indicated that they felt the focus areas matched their expectations at Woodland and that their voice was heard in the process.
For more information about the goals and initiatives for the next five years, go to www.dist50.net and under the Our District tab you will find Strategic Plan 2018-2023.