District 211's new strategic plan makes student involvement a top priority

As Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 begins to implement its second five-year strategic plan, school board President Anna Klimkowicz said its value lies in the fact it's not routine, automatic or required by any outside authority.

Rather than just going from one budget year to the next with a board of education that can change every other year, the strategic plan provides the opportunity to set challenges for self-improvement and build a sense of continuity, she said.

"We talked about a lot of things, but I didn't see a plan," Klimkowicz said of the reasons she urged creation of the first plan five years ago. "Let's put something on paper so we can see the steps we want to take and where we want to go."

Approved by the school board in June, the strategic plan establishes the district's long-term goals, its methods of reaching them and criteria for measuring progress.

The new 2022-2027 plan, "211 Forward Together," recognizes the impact of the pandemic and the nearly two years of separation it created for students. Goal 1 of the plan is involvement: "All District 211 students will demonstrate involvement with the school community."

Like the other nine goals, it identifies a number of targets by which progress can be measured.

More so than with the first strategic plan, the creation of the new plan emphasized the input of students.

"Students felt that they needed a voice," Klimkowicz said. "This was an extension of that."

The process considered students' input valuable, but still needed to balance it with the life experience of parents and teachers, she added.

The strategic plan's other goals establish steps toward improvement of academic growth, college and career readiness, staying on track for graduation, wellness, equity, postsecondary school success, the quality of staff, facilities and finances, and communications.

While the district's technology and communications helped ready students and faculty for the sudden disruption of the COVID-19 outbreak, that period also demonstrated where improvements could be made, Klimkowicz said.

While district leaders sought community input during the steering process, Klimkowicz said there will be further involvement by groups monitoring the progress of goals such as diversity awareness, equity and wellness.

The consultant hired to assist the district did a good job of facilitating the steering process without leading the community in any particular direction, she added.

"I think the first one was a good learning experience and set our course. This time we explored it differently," Klimkowicz said. "This plan again challenges the district and that's what we want to do."

Detailed information on the plan can be found on the district's website at adc.d211.org/domain/46.