At tonight’s ANCS PTCA meeting, there will be an opportunity to learn more about the process of updating the school’s multi-year strategic plan. I’m using this week’s blog post to give you some background and context about this process.
First, you may be wondering “Why would a school even have a strategic plan?” Well, here is a blog post I wrote a few years ago that addressed that very question if you want a detailed answer, but, in short, we have a strategic plan to outline what the most important goals are for ANCS in the next few years so that we can better prioritize the use of our time, resources, and people to carry out our mission and work towards our vision. In 2014, the ANCS board–through a strategic planning committee–engaged the full school community in the process of creating a strategic plan to guide us through 2018. From increasing personalization for students to strengthening faculty/staff quality of life to building financial reserves, much has been accomplished over the past four years under this plan (you can read a one-page overview of the plan and accomplishments on our website).
With direction and momentum provided by our strategic plan created in 2014, last school year, the ANCS board brought on a pair of facilitators to work with a strategic planning committee to update our plan for the next three years. The committee (consisting of board members Laura Melton and Joyce Gist Lewis and faculty/staff members Tilifayea Griffin, Elizabeth Hearn, Kari Lovell, Mark Sanders, and me) has worked over the past few months to use a variety of data sources and input from the full board to draft a set of proposed goals and objectives in the areas of (1) Educational Achievement & Opportunity, (2) Equity & Inclusivity, (3) Culture & Community, and (4) Innovation.
Before going further in updating the plan by developing strategies and indicators of success aligned to the goals and objectives, the committee first wants to be sure the goals and objectives reflect the needs and hopes of our school family. So at this point, with draft goals and objectives, we’re launching a feedback period starting with tonight’s PTCA meeting where we’ll be walking through them. Then next week, the draft goals and objectives will be emailed to all families, teachers/staff, and a few partners from the wider community along with a short feedback survey. Additionally, a summary of the goals and objectives will be posted at each campus with a QR code tied to the survey as another visual reminder of this opportunity for feedback.
Given how valuable our strategic plan has been in ANCS’s development over the past few years, I hope you will take advantage of this chance to shape the update of our strategic plan. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me or to the committee’s co-chair, Laura Melton.