Future look: Alanson Public Schools completes five-year strategic plan

ALANSON — When Alanson Public Schools' superintendent and K-12 principal Rachelle Cook took over as leader of the school district, a question was brought to her attention.

"I was asked if Alanson has a strategic plan and what was it? What would it be and what would it look like?" Cook said. "After doing some research, I discovered we had never done one and I found out that they (strategic plans) are run by the MASB (Michigan Association of School Boards) who facilitate it, and it's a research based process.

"That helped us get started."

Following months of work completed by community members, parents, administrators and school district staff, Alanson Public Schools announced earlier this month its 2021-26 strategic plan in which a number of participants are helping shape the vision and goals for the future of the school district.

"I'm just excited to get started on it and start working on those goals," Cook said. "Some things we've already started and when the goals came out in August and with the board getting ready to approve, we were already looking to tackle some of them, which felt really good.

"Even though we have five years to work on them, it felt good to know we're already moving in the right direction on a particular goal," Cook said. "I'm excited to have that focus and have everyone have that focus."

With help from Michigan Association of Schools Boards consultant Rick Diebold, five public forums took place that sought input from community members, parents, students, board members and staff with an electronic survey. As a result, 145 different stakeholders provided a voice in the planning process.

On July 31, a strategic planning team of 27 community members, parents and guardians, board members, administrators, staff and students participated in an all-day planning retreat to develop the core components of the plan. Presented to the Alanson Public Schools Board of Education at its Oct. 20 meeting, the strategic plan was approved by the board.

There were several clear and consistent themes which emerged from the process, which included the following:

• While Alanson Public Schools is a strong school system, there is still work ahead to improve academic, social, and emotional growth, character development, instructional strategies and innovative opportunities to provide a challenging and personalized education for every student.

• Alanson Pubic Schools provides safe and modern facilities for learning, but it is critical that this valuable community asset be properly maintained and kept running in top form in terms of infrastructure, technology, learning environment and safety/security needs in order to continue to be viable for generations of students to come.

• The ongoing success of Alanson Public Schools must be a top community priority that requires support from all stakeholders (students, parents, guardians, taxpayers, businesses, nonprofits, foundations, government agencies, etc).

• As a district, we must positively engage with internal and external stakeholders around common goals and strategies to improve academic growth and achievement, social-emotional well-being, and continuous improvement.

Five strategic goal areas were identified including academics/programs, learning environment and culture, personnel and leadership, communications and community involvement, and operations and finance.

The key initiatives identified by the strategic planning team included the following:

• Expanding and enhancing academic electives in grades 6-12, and after-school and club activities in K-12.

• Increasing community engagement through events and student journalism.

• Continue to utilize in-person learning options as much as possible.

• Identify administrative duties more clearly and consider the time required for such duties.

• Develop a culture of respectful relationships among all stakeholders.

• Enhance "curb appeal" to welcome new and current students to campus, including improved signage.

"Curb appeal came up in one of our planning sessions because we're not on a main street," Cook said. "We're kind of hidden and people don't often know we're even here. We really talked about dressing up our curb appeal before you even enter the building and what do you see? That's something we're already working on with a landscaper and that work will begin in the spring.

"We're dressing up that landscaping so when people drive by our school they'll say, 'Wow, that looks really nice and that's a place I'd want to go into and have my kids go to school,'" Cook added. "We've had some construction go on to tackle some of the safety parts of the project and we're also looking at staffing and electives for our kids, offering more electives and trying to offer more clubs and have our kids being involved in more things besides just their core classes."

Becky Babcock, president of the Alanson Public Schools Board of Education, said she was impressed throughout the planning process that stakeholders expressed high expectations of Alanson Public Schools staff and students.

"Even though some of our goals are extremely high, they reflect the strong desire that has been expressed to embrace continuous improvement for our school system," Babcock said. "I am confident we will reach these goals.

"This plan will provide guidance for future decision making and initiatives to empower our students to become confident, prepared, compassionate leaders."

Cook said a number of themes emerged during the planning process of the five-year plan, including continuing to improve academic, social and emotional growth, character development, instructional strategies and to grow innovative programs.

"It was a really neat process that really helped us zero in on five goals and then breaking down within those five goals what we're going to do to improve financially, operationally, academically and socially, respecting the whole child and whatever their needs are in the individuality," Cook said. "It really brought everyone's ideas to the surface."

Cook said the district is also continuing to maintain facilities in safe and modern ways.

"From a safety concern perspective I'm really proud of this district," Cook said. "Some districts still do not have cameras in their schools. We've had cameras in our building for six years and use them for all sorts of reasons. We're looking at tightening up our protocols and processes and making sure we continue to practice and do all those things we've been doing and following them to a T like we always have."

To view the entire Alanson Public Schools 2021-26 strategic plan, visit www.alansonvikings.net.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Future look: Alanson Public Schools completes five-year strategic plan