Happy New Year! We are excited at the prospect that the new year brings to all of us as learners and educators. Every January 1st, many of us make resolutions in our private lives to do things differently. And – as many of us will attest – resolutions are sometimes difficult to follow or sustain. Organizations, not unlike people, also make resolutions. Very much like an annual resolution, our Board of Education and administrators develop annual goals that foster growth and improvement towards delivering a high-quality education to our students. Coupled with these annual goals are strategies and metrics to promote successful goal-achievement.
Unlike personal New Year’s resolutions, however, our SOCSD annual planning process (also called strategic planning) is more likely to be successful since we work as a team, not only with each other, but with our community partners. If you’ve ever been unsuccessful at sticking to your New Year’s resolutions, it’s probably because you were managing this self-improvement goal by yourself – your resolution may have even been a little unrealistic which caused you to become discouraged and abandon your goal. Strategic planning, when done properly, is a systemic, collaborative approach towards long-term organizational innovation. The strategic plan is greater than any one individual and represents the collective will and shared objectives of our community.
Starting in late January 2017, we will be reaching out to all of our community members to be our partners in our strategic planning process. We have developed, in collaboration with K12 Insight, an online survey that will help guide our SOCSD Strategic Planners in the areas of:
- Focus Area A – Promote Academic Success. All students have equitable access to rigorous curriculum, aligned instructional materials and meaningful assessments that guide instructional practice.
- Focus Area B – Develop Human Resources and Professional Capacity: Recruit, support and retain highly qualified staff.
- Focus Area C – Improve Communication and Foster Community Engagement: Effective communications through meaningful family and community engagement.
- Focus Area D Ensure the Health and Safety of our School Community: The Cornerstone of the South Orangetown Central School District is a culture based on high expectations for healthy and safe behaviors while promoting respect and good citizenship.
- Focus Area E – Develop Management Systems (controls) that Emphasize Quality Control and Continuous Improvement: Develop and align instructional support infrastructure, leveraging technology, operations and business services to build a culture of alignment and continuous improvement.
On a related note, I am grateful to have the opportunity to meet with each of you at the upcoming PTA Council Meeting on January 9 at 7 pm in the Tappan Zee High School Library. Our conversation will be an open discussion on those items that are vital towards making our system of education even better.
We are almost halfway through the school year and I am happy to report that we are making progress in all of the above listed focus areas. To be sure, we have many challenges ahead, but I am confident that we will hold true to our motto, “Together we Can,” as we continue to innovate and improve.