Speak Now! Greenwich Public Schools Wants Your Opinion

This is an announcement from the Greenwich Board of Education.

The Board of Education, in collaboration with the Superintendent and Greenwich Public Schools Staff, announced this week the launch of a year-long strategic planning initiative to help plot the district’s future plans while addressing its needs.

The Board of Education selected the Public Consulting Group (PCG) through a competitive request for proposals process as the strategic planning facilitator. A high priority in the initiative will be broad involvement and input, transparency, and regular communication. To that end, we are writing to introduce the strategic planning process and general timeline.

Strategic Planning Overview

PCG will be working in partnership with the Greenwich Public Schools to facilitate the development of a strategic plan. This includes defining organizational goals and developing action plans with recommended measures of success. PCG will provide an interactive, transparent approach in which members of the community will help to shape a positive future vision. Working closely with educators, administrators, students, families, and community members, PCG will support the development of a plan that meets the unique needs of our schools and community, builds on existing strengths, and draws from best practices. At the end of the process, we will have a set of district strategic goals and priorities, supported by action plans, measures of success, and opportunities for further reflection in which action and outcomes are directly connected.

PCG will begin the first phase of the work in December 2014, collecting data in which values, beliefs, and expectations are explored to shape and refine a clear, positive future vision and mission for the district through focus groups and surveys. The data will help to identify emerging priorities and those areas in which there are common concerns, interests, and/or desire to enhance the Greenwich Public Schools. PCG will deliver recommendations based on identified strengths and resources; will support the development of goals associated with the recommendations; and develop a set of action plans and immediate next steps in pursuit of the goals. In this way, PCG will support the Greenwich Public Schools as we move from conceptualization to enactment to evaluation of our strategic plan.

Timeline:

• November: Project Launch
• December: Data Collection — online survey; community focus groups; community forum.
• January 2015: Data Analysis — Key themes and priorities identified and ranked.
• February 2015: Data Review — A narrowing of priorities.
• March 2015: Gap Analysis — Within each priority, identified policy, budget and curriculum changes.
• March 2015 – May 2015: Action Planning — Community forum; Action plans with specifics of work to be done.
• May – June 2015: Compiling of final document and presentation — Final strategic plan; Community presentation.

Leadership Committee

A Leadership Committee, representative of key stakeholders, will work with PCG on the design and implementation of the strategic planning process. The committee members are:

• Barbara O’Neill, Chairman, BOE
• Jennifer Dayton, Vice Chairman, BOE
• Peter von Braun, Member, BOE
• William McKersie, Superintendent of Schools
• Ellen Flanagan, Deputy Superintendent of Schools
• Lisa Harkness, President, PTA Council
• Michael Mason, Chairman, BET
• Angela Schmidt, Co-President, GOSA
• Carol Sutton, President, GEA
• Peter Tesei, First Selectman

While students are not directly represented on the Leadership Committee, they will be included in focus groups and surveys. The Superintendent also will connect the process to GHS students through the GHS Student Government, with which he meets monthly.

Next Steps –

December 2014

• Subsets of all stakeholder groups will be invited to specific Focus Groups during December.
• A Community Forum will be held on Tuesday, December 2 from 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at Central Middle School.
• The Survey (Online) will be administered during December.
• A dedicated section of the GPS Website has been created for this initiative: www.greenwichschools.org/StrategicPlan