Jackson School Board receives draft of district's strategic plan

After months of discussion and work by stakeholders, the Jackson School Board has a draft version of the strategic plan that will take the district through its next five years and beyond.

Meredith Pobst, director of communications, said if approved, the plan will be reviewed each year and won't gather dust.

"As you know, the strategic plan is a living, breathing document," she said during her remarks at Wednesday night's school board meeting.

If board members have no questions, changes or additions to the plan, it could be approved as early as next month.

A big part of the plan is keeping technology at the forefront of education, including ushering in a 1:1 computer initiative in the next three years. That means students and teachers will have laptops or tablets as part of the core curriculum.

About 400 certified teachers have been receiving Chromebook laptops this summer.

Associate superintendent Matt Lacy, who has led the push toward 1:1, said plenty of training will be offered for teachers and students as the devices take hold, particularly in terms of students using good judgment.

"We want to make sure our kids are safe online, and that they (exercise) appropriate digital citizenship," he said.

He also emphasized a system will be put in place to evaluate the devices' effectiveness.

Another major point of emphasis in the strategic plan is ensuring students throughout the district are given opportunities to do community service work.

"This was the strategy that kind of surprised me the most," said associate superintendent Beth Emmendorfer, who oversaw a group of about 30 stakeholders who focused on service learning or students learning to be givers and not takers in society.

One idea is to require students to complete a certain number of hours of community service work during the school day.

Other points in the plan include:

• Finance. Superintendent John Link said aside from local, state and federal funding, the district should look more into alternative funding methods such as grants and partnerships with businesses, especially as the district continues to grow.
• Instruction. Reading is flagged as a major priority in plan -- not only for students who are struggling, but also for those who excel. "It's so important that we make sure all of our students are readers," Emmendorfer said.

Also identified as priorities are more individualized learning approaches for mainstream students, not just those with individual education plans, and seeing what can be done to expand after-school and summer-school offerings in the district.

• Facilities. A facilities study is being conducted and should be finished by August, Link said.

Its main purpose is to take inventory of existing buildings in the district to see which ones can be retrofitted to accommodate a 21st-century learning environment, which should be built in the future and which should be removed.

The plan also will contain and eight- to 10-year growth projection for the district.

"Class size is a big word for us right now," he said.

Of equal importance is ensuring teachers, parents and students are aware of the district's evacuation plan in case of an emergency.

"We want to make that more readily available to all of us," Link said.

Once the strategic plan is approved, it will become a public document.

ljones@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652