Bexley City Schools: First phase of updating strategic plan completed
Bexley City Schools is evaluating public feedback as it wraps up the first of three phrases of a strategic planning process that kicked off this fall.
“Once we have all of the information and feedback, we will start compiling what those common themes are, and that will guide us into phase two,” Superintendent Jason Fine said at the school board’s Nov. 17 meeting.
The district started the effort to update its three-year strategic plan in October and has hired consulting firm Big Questions Institute to facilitate the process.
The district’s most recent strategic plan covered 2018 through 2021 and encompassed such areas as instruction, students’ social and emotional development, staff professional development, facilities and community partnerships, according to bexleyschools.org.
The first phase of the process included public forums at the Bexley Public Library and district school buildings. The district also is incorporating input of students, faculty and administrators, Fine said.
“We have had multiple focus groups,” he said. “We’ve provided multiple sessions for each building faculty.”
Throughout the fall, Big Questions Institute held in-person sessions for elementary, middle and high school students to offer feedback, board President Victoria Powers said.
“There have been a lot of in-person opportunities for our students,” she said.
The district also is seeking additional input from Bexley City Schools alumni, following a session earlier this fall specifically for those graduates, Fine said.
“We’ve already sent a Google form for them to provide feedback, but we would have liked to have seen some more participation in our actual live focus group,” he said. “We’re getting some feedback from them, some stories that they’re sharing about the (district’s) strengths and obstacles.”
At a Nov. 19 public forum at Montrose Elementary School, 2555 E. Main St., about 20 community members weighed in on what they like about the district, challenges that it faces and opportunities for growth.
Cited challenges include the need for more diversity among staff and the student population, the need to increase pay for teachers’ aides, not enough field trips for younger students and the perceived vagueness of the Bexley Middle School grading system that gauges student proficiency in subjects but does not issue actual letter grades.
Areas for possible growth mentioned include providing more mental-health resources for students, improving special education, offering more opportunities for peer-to-peer mentoring among students and reducing class sizes.
Features that participants said they like about the district included its high academic rating on state report cards, programs that bring artists and scientists in for classroom visits and teachers who see themselves as part of the community and are respected by the community.
The district plans to publicly release all of responses from the public forums by mid-December on the district website, Fine said.
The second phase of the strategic planning process likely will include a survey for students, employees and community members focusing on issues mentioned in focus groups and public forums during the first phase, he said.
The second phase of the strategic-planning process is scheduled to last from January through March 2023. The final phase is scheduled from April through May 2023, with the updated strategic plan presented to the community before the end of May 2023.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Bexley City Schools: First phase of updating strategic plan completed
