The Fayette County School System is asking for public input on the Strategic Improvement Plan expected to be up for a vote by the Fayette County Board of Education on May 18.
Those interested in providing input can access the plan, an executive summary and a community feedback form at the school system’s website at www.fcboe.org.
“Following eight months of work by three separate teams consisting of school and community stakeholders comprising the Fayette County Public Schools strategic plan initiative, a draft of the strategic plan is now available for public review and comment,” said school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.
The plan comes with up to five goal areas. Those include student engagement and achievement; organizational and operational effectiveness; stakeholder, community and family engagement; professional growth and human resources; and, as a possible fifth goal, digital literacy and integration.
The student engagement and achievement goal addresses increased pathway completion and graduation rates across all subgroups, increased equity and access for all students and increased student mastery of state standards.
The organizational and operational effectiveness goal addresses ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment, increasing efficient use of resources, processes and management structures and improving organizational and governance structures.
The stakeholder, community and family engagement goal addresses improving effective engagement with stakeholders and the community, expanding educational and career development partnerships and improving the clarity and effectiveness of internal and external communications.
The professional growth and human resources goal addresses securing excellent staff, developing highly-effective staff and creating a system-wide succession plan for key positions.
The final goal area of digital literacy and integration is currently pending. If adopted, the goal will address allocating adequate financial and material resources commensurate with digital priorities, identifying and defining essential elements of digital literacy for faculty, staff, students and parents and affording students digital access to curricular content and resources.
Berry-Dreisbach said the strategic plan process started in August 2014 following unanimous approval by the school board to use a process developed by the Georgia School Boards Association and Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement to create an updated 5-Year strategic plan for the school system.
The strategic plan team structure is comprised of members who represent all stakeholders of the school system, including the community. The members were placed on specific teams that were charged with collaboratively developing various sections of the plan.
Berry-Dreisbach said the final step in the process is to obtain community feedback on the priorities and goals identified in the plan. There are links on the school system’s website (www.fcboe.org) to the executive summary and draft of the strategic plan. Below them is a link to a feedback form where persons can leave their comments and suggestions from now until May 17.
The information obtained from the feedback form will be used by the strategic plan team to finalize the plan prior to submission to the Fayette County Board of Education for approval on May 18, Berry-Dreisbach said.
