There’s a saying that goes something like this, “…if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got…” That little bit of common sense folk wisdom can be a useful reminder to any of us; whether we choose to apply it in our personal lives, our professional lives, or both! Repeatedly trying to do the same thing with an expectation that there will be a different result is an act in futility that never helps us to move forward.Four years ago this fall, our school district tried to ‘break the mold’ by revisiting its existing strategic plan and creating a new plan that would help us move into a new century of changing expectations.
Through the efforts of a community-based committee of parents, students, staff and Happy Valley citizens and business leaders came together to chart our course for change. A new mission was developed “..to inspire all learners so that they might excel in a dynamic society…” And strategic initiatives were put into place that called upon us to i) create learning environments that meet the unique needs of all learners, ii) optimize technology to enhance instruction, iii) use our fiscal resources effectively and responsibly iv) ensure our facilities support our educational services and v) maximize effective internal and external communications.
This process of planning and deployment has led to many positive changes taking place in our District over the course of the last four (4) years; changes that have helped our children improve in their overall school achievement. For example, on our state report card issued by the MDE we’re cited for having, “…. 33 eligible groups and … [meeting]…93.9% of the requirements for Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind. And this past year, our composite ACT score was among the highest in the history of our District. But there have been disappointments along the way as well. Based upon the outcome of the levy questions presented to our community last year, we still have unresolved issues and concerns related to the adequacy of our school facilities, the long-term health of our operating budget, and perceptions of an on-going need to improve communications with the public we serve.
Recognizing these remaining challenges and because we don’t want to fall into the trap of ‘…doing what we’ve always done…’ the Board and District administration will enter into a planning process that will call upon us to look again at our strategic plan, affirm our mission as well as our strategic initiatives. We will more clearly define lines of accountability both internally and externally and our strategic initiatives will be accompanied by performance benchmarks that will help the Board, our administrative team and probably most importantly, our community, know how well we’re doing. We’re embarking down a path of doing things differently with the single purpose of living our mission to, “….inspire…so that our children can excel…” in life. Doing what we’ve always done with the expectation to get a different outcome is not an acceptable course of action for us!
