Strategic Plan Tops Dolan's Agenda

The development of a new strategic plan for the Board of Education tops Schools Supt. Margaret Dolan's agenda for the 2009-2010 school year.

The creation of a document, which will guide education policy-making for the next five years, is expected to last the entire school year. Several steps are planned for the process, with a community survey due to be sent out in the coming weeks.

The survey, which was developed over the summer by school district staffers and community volunteers, will be sent to a random sample of parents and community members. The survey will seek input into public education in Westfield and gauge priorities. The volunteers assisted in developing sampling techniques for the online survey and developing non-leading questions.

"It will be a good part of the strategic plan, 'what does our current community value,'" Dolan said of the survey.

The survey results will be given to a strategic plan committee, which will work with the school board to develop the larger policy areas for the plan. The committee will consist of parents, students, faculty and town residents in order to review survey data and discuss education policy in town. The committee will be provided with other data, including previous strategic plans, as part of the discussion process.

"The group will help us form basic goal areas," she said.

Dolan will take the goal areas from the committee and hand them over to district staffers to develop specific action plans for each area. These plans will lay out how the school district will implement each area and what the district will accomplish over the next five years. Once the action plans are developed, the committee will review them and provide comment back to the district staff. Dolan expects to release a formal strategic plan by the end of the current school year in June.

While no specific public forums are planned at this time on the strategic plan, Dolan said there will be more opportunities for public comment besides the survey. She said the Board of Education will likely set aside parts of several board meetings to hear public comment. In addition, the public is invited to talk to steering committee members during the course of the year.

Dolan said the last strategic plan had been a success for the district and she is looking forward to having another one. She said the last plan had helped guide several key enrollment decisions including the opening of Lincoln School as an early childhood learning center and the moving of Washington School students to Edison Intermediate School.

"One of the goals of the last plan had been dealing with an increasing enrollment," Dolan said. "If that had not been a goal we may be scrambling now. Strategic planning has helped."