Members of the community would come together to help set future goals of the district.
The Mt. Laurel School District is set to embark on a new strategic planning initiative, and officials are asking for help from the community.
Entitled “A Path to Success 2030: Strategic Planning for the Future” the plan’s name stems from this year’s kindergarten class, which will be graduating high school in 2030.
Rather than starting the process for deciding the direction of the district for the coming years at an administrative level, district officials are instead hoping to base their plan on input offered from residents.
To facilitate this process, the Board of Education approved the hiring of a consulting firm at last week’s BOE meeting to organize three nights officials describe as “core planning sessions.”
According to the officials, the district is hoping to assemble representatives of the full Mt. Laurel community over three nights for dialogue about the future of the school system, specifically with input from parents, students, members of the community, district staff, administrators and BOE members.
Officials say these meetings would have participants discuss what’s working well in the district, offer expectations for the future and then develop action steps to enable the final vision of any plan.
With three nights each capped at 90 minutes of discussion, officials say the events provide a chance for local stakeholders to share their thoughts in small, structured groups, where all ideas can be reflected upon and taken into consideration.
At the end of the process, the district would then create a community-wide survey to collect additional feedback and input from the community to identify even more areas of improvement.
According to consultant Charles Ivory, at the end of the process, his group would then help the district craft a first draft of a strategic plan, rather than simply present the district data but without direction.
“At the end of three 90-minute meetings we can provide a first full draft that will have goals, objectives and identify potential action steps,” Ivory said.
Superintendent George Rafferty also praised the design of the strategic planning initiative.
“It’s three evenings, very time set, simple, with a mutual focus, and I think at the end of the process, topped off with a community-wide survey, we’ve really got done a broad spectrum job in getting community input from all different constituents and stakeholders,” Rafferty said.
Rafferty said the process will also help the district gain insight from the public on a potential referendum the district may hold in the future related to facility improvements across the district.
According to the district, the meetings will be held on Thursdays Nov. 2, Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 in the cafeteria at Hartford School, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and concluding by 8 p.m.
Participants can sign-up at http://signup.com/go/KsQOoqO.
In other news at last week’s meeting:
The Board of Education presented an award of appreciation at last week’s meeting to members and leaders of Mt. Laurel Girl Scout Troop 24363 for collecting and donating backpacks and other school supplies for district students. The board honored Scouts Sabrina Parikh, Madison Ryder, Ella Hashimoto, Lauren Frankunas, Brooke Hughes, Aviana Scolieri, Sydney Ormerod, Sophia Hoysa, Jenna Nolan and Angela Schwing, as well as Troop Leaders Lisa Fracassi and Beth Frankunas.
The Board of Education also presented an award of appreciation to employees of the Mt. Laurel-based firm Stewart, A Xerox Company, for also collecting and donating of school supplies for students in need. Customer advocate Leslie Jones organized the company-wide collection.
