Fayette

County school officials have dusted off a

10-year-old strategic plan, revised it and

presented it to the public for comment, with the

idea of having a blueprint to follow for the next

five years.

The

15-page document opens with a mission and belief

statement and sets goals for communication,

curriculum and instruction, growth organization,

human resources and support services. Financial

goals will be included in the updated version, an

area which did not appear in the original plan.

About

35 school staffers, school board members and

interested parents looked over the draft copy of

the strategic plan recently during a community

round table meeting at the Lafayette Education

Center.

Round

table participants were urged to review the plan

and submit suggested changes, additions and

deletions by Dec. 1.

School

superintendent Dr. John DeCotis said the plan was

revisited last spring with recommended changes

made during the summer by staff members meeting

in committee.

"We'd

like to get this to the Board of Education within

a month... before the budgeting process

starts," DeCotis said. "The budget will

be tight, however," he warned.

Dr.

Bob Martin, principal of Braelinn Elementary

School and a committee member working on the

strategic plan, called it a "living

document." "If it creates distinct

problems, we can work back through it," he

said. "It can be changed every six

months," Martin added.

At

this point the draft plan is very broad in its

scope and will not be any more detailed until it

is approved by the Board of Education. "Once

you agree on the goals, you get people together

to see how to meet those goals," DeCotis

said. Priorities would be set on an annual basis,

he noted, mostly to be decided by the board.

"What they can and cannot do, a lot of it,

comes down to resources," he explained.

Some

of the goals set forth in the plan include

developing a public relations program headed by a

full-time employee, and setting up a system of

evaluating the public's perception of the school

system for communications. The first goal

outlined in curriculum and instruction proposes

developing "an enhanced curriculum based on

research findings and effective practices."

It

also intends to "meet the needs of

individual students." The third area focuses

on growth organization and "developing a

process for the coordination and utilization of

resources in planning for growth," and

"following procedures for using existing

facilities and building new ones based on program

needs."

The

human resources section goals covers

"innovative programs for staff development,

developing equitable personnel policies and

procedures, and "employing superior

personnel through recruitment."

Support

services addresses counseling issues,

psychological services and multimedia equipment

and materials, support staff and maintenance.

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