The Wrangell School Board, still getting settled with new members from the election on Oct. 2, held a work session on the evening of Oct. 28 to begin a review of the district's strategic plan. The strategic plan was adopted in June of 2018, and sets a series of goals for the school district to aim for through to the year 2023.
There are five main goals outlined in the plan, each with their own set of strategies and actions to be taken to accomplish them. The goals are: Student Learning, Stakeholder Satisfaction, Employee Development, Administrative Support Systems, and Fiscal Responsibility.
Given the depth that the board wanted to get into, it was quickly decided after the meeting began that they would only review the first goal that night.
"We actually started shortly after the beginning of the year, January 2018, we got groups together of 10 or 12 people," Georgianna Buhler said, explaining how the strategic plan came together. "Some of them were staff, there were students, there was teachers, community leaders, business leaders, it was a broad-based selection of people who were asked to sit on the committee."
The first goal of student learning is accompanied by three strategies: Provide a standards-based curriculum, increase student achievement across all content areas, and to deliver a diverse curriculum. Each of these strategies have subheads of multiple action items the district can take. For example, under the strategy of providing a standards-based curriculum, one of the action items discussed was to "complete K-12 curriculum alignment and vertical mapping."
"In kindergarten they have science standards and kids are supposed to learn seasons and stuff like that," Superintendent Debbe Lancaster explained. "In first grade they're supposed to learn a little bit more detail about living things, non-living things, that sort of thing. Basically, when you vertically align something what you do is you make sure that the knowledge that the kids are getting is spiraled, that it is building upon itself."
Lancaster told the board that the district is working on vertical mapping from kindergarten to 12th grade, but that it has not been completed yet. The board proposed altering the completion date in the strategic plan from April of 2021 to April of 2022.
Multiple changes to action items under the second strategy, increasing student achievement, were also proposed during the workshop. One action item read "Explore K-12 written expression assessment and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) for all grades." Essentially, this action item was focused on making sure students were seeing the usefulness of writing in more than just English class. They were handling word problems in math class, for example, or using their writing skills in science lessons. The board proposed to change this action item from exploration to implementation across all core curriculum classes by 2022. Another action item the board covered was to explore the possibility of using Individualized Learning Plans for students. The board proposed that Lancaster put together a written recommendation on this idea by next April. The board also said they would like to see end-of-course student assessments for math classes, beginning next spring. Lastly, under the second strategy, the board proposed an annual report on how students are learning about the practical uses of mathematics in the real world.
On the third and final strategy for the student learning goal, delivering a diverse curriculum, the board only had a few changes to propose. Two action items, a review/revision of the life skills curriculum and implementation of said curriculum, were combined into one. On an action item emphasizing teaching collaboration and anti-bullying skills to students, the board agreed after some discussion that this was being done successfully at the elementary level, and focus needed to be on bringing these lessons to the middle school and high school. The board also agreed that an action item calling for increased participation in fine arts programs be altered to say "encourage participation." Seeing a regular increase in fine arts programs every year was impossible, the board agreed, so altering the wording would be a wise decision.
The final action item they discussed read "Host or provide opportunities for students to attend a college/job fair." This has been a challenge as Wrangell is not a big enough town to draw businesses or universities for a local fair. Travel costs can also prohibit some Wrangell students from seeing what opportunities are out there. The board agreed that students needed to be aware of more opportunities than can be shown at a college or job fair, they needed to see a full range of potential career paths and vocational schools available to them. After some further discussion, the board proposed to rewrite this action item to say "Expand opportunities for students to attend a college/job fair, and explore different career paths."
The school board plans to continue their review of the strategic plan prior to their next meeting on Nov. 18. As this was a work session, none of the proposed revisions to the strategic plan have been adopted yet. They will be up for approval in future school board meetings.
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