The Danville School Board held a three-day retreat, November 2 through November 4, 2017, to consider a future vision of public education in the city of Danville and develop a robust framework for the Danville Public Schools’ Education Strategic Plan. The Board and Superintendent spent three days brainstorming and planning in an effort to develop a compelling vision, goals, and potential initiatives to achieve those goals.
The retreat goals included team building aimed at blending and leveraging the experiences, preferences, and values of Board members and the Superintendent toward serving the Danville community as it develops its Public Education Strategic Plan. The retreat also provided participants an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the governance roles and responsibilities while identifying focus areas that will assist the school division to develop and sustain a strategic approach that will enable it to be high performing and meet those expectations.
The School Board confirmed its commitment to the themes that arose from the retreat during its work session held on November 13, 2017. An overall draft vision statement included the theme that Danville Public Schools is “a community invested in education.” Another notion that evolved is the idea that we are “all in” when it comes to education in our community. These vision statements are beliefs that drive goal setting, planning, and decision making for the Board, Superintendent, and staff. These statements are in draft form and will be discussed further in upcoming meetings.
The Board also identified several target areas for specific goals including: optimal academic achievement, investing in the highest quality employees, creating and maintaining 21st Century learning environments, and ensuring that each child realizes his or her unique potential. The Board also emphasized its commitment to maintain a strong working relationship with City Council and between the City Manager and Superintendent.
Specifically, the Board identified six specific strategic goals to achieve the vision:
- DPS develops and implements an aggressive curriculum that challenges and inspires every student to optimize learning and success.
- DPS attracts and continuously invests in its employees and their professional development to maximize student success.
- DPS creates and maintains infrastructure and operations essential for dynamic 21st Century learning.
- DPS engages the community and all of its members to embrace their role in a comprehensive approach that realizes each child’s unique potential.
- With help from the larger community, DPS identifies and addresses the physical, emotional, and social needs of each child as they affect his or her educational achievement.
- Through DPS’s exemplary public relations and customer service, Danville will attain a reputation across the state as a community that is invested in education.
Following the retreat and subsequent meetings, the School Board members identified a next step to complete the Strategic Plan to include the Superintendent scheduling Strategic Planning Session(s) for staff in November and December 2017 with a goal of completing the draft DPS Strategic Plan by the end of this year. Next, the Superintendent will work with the facilitators to schedule a joint session after the first of the year (2018) for the School Board and staff members who developed the draft DPS Strategic Plan. This will assure that there is clear alignment between the goals identified by the School Board and the objectives and action plans drafted by staff members and support from community members that the DPS Strategic Plan will ultimately include the vision, goals, objectives, action plans, and measures. Ultimately the Plan will guide the work of the Board, the staff, and the community as a tool for systematic measures and accountability for Danville’s desired public education system.