By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

After months of preparation, Assistant Superintendents Debra White and Sarah Burbach rolled out the five-year Stategic Plan to the school board Monday.
The plan, which will last the school system from this school year to the 2016-2017 school year, began with community-wide meetings–establishing "stakeholder wants and expectations"–then delved deeper, through community- and school employee-staffed groups, by establishing Planning and Action teams that came up with the five-goal area plan and specific steps and actions as to how to achieve these goals.
The first goal area is "Student Achievement," and objectives include ensuring curriculum mastery, that students graduate on time and that they are college- and career-ready. Instructional, assessment and advisory initiatives will be put into place through the monitoring of student progress, development of a comprehensive assessment plan and the provision of support systems for county students.
The second goal area, "Community and Schools Relationships and Engagement," includes the objectives of increasing parental involvement and ensuring communication with parents and the community as a whole. Outreach, participation, partnership and public relations initiatives will be achieved through community meetings, parent volunteer workshops and better informing of stakeholders.
The third goal area involves "Climate" and objectives include maintaining orderly schools as well as ensuring orderly environments. The initiatives of a student-focused environment, customer service, behavior management and school/transportation safety will be achieved through surveys, focus groups, training and monitoring of behavior referrals.
The fourth goal area, "Continuous Development," includes the objectives of providing effective professional development, ensuring highly effective professional and support staff, and conducting meaningful evaluations of that staff. The initatives of job-embedded professional development, induction, aspiring leaders, support and supervision will be accomplished by the conducting of an annual needs assessment, developing protocol for "Awareness Walks" and training for employees.
The fifth and final goal area is "Operational Effectiveness" and objectives include ensuring effectiveness of the nutrition, technology and transportation programs, human resources and maintenance and operations. Achieving the initiatives of participation, curriculum integration, administrative technology, bus safety, selection, recruitment, and clean schools will be accomplished by professional learning on the integration of technology resources, an annual review of the technology plan, survey of bus riders, monitoring of the implementation of safety drills, reviewing and aligning hiring procedures, analyzing staff needs and conducting an annual review of facilities.
Additionally, principals will appoint teams to work on alignment of this plan and those committee members will work with central office personnel to monitor implementation of the Strategic Plan.
The five-year Strategic Plan will be available for public review for 30 days before it again goes before the school board for a vote. Those members of the public are encouraged to contact White at the BOE office, 1065 East Avenue in Madison, by calling 706-752-4600 or e-mailing debra.white@morgan.k12.ga.us. The plan is available in the BOE office or online at the school board's website, morgan.k12.ga.us.

Printed in the September 13 edition.