Simplify the strategy
How do you eat an elephant? Bite by bite. It’s an old adage, but one to keep in mind as Ector County Independent School District administrators and trustees continue to work toward turning the district’s strategic plan into a workable reality.
The strategic plan is a five-year plan approved by the board in November. Comprised of belief and mission statements and action plans created by community members, parents, teachers and students, the plan was created to give the school district a clear vision of where the community wants them to go. Now, the board members and administrators are trying to figure out how to actually get there. They met Tuesday to look at a simplified version of the strategic plan.
In February, the board approved a $70,000 contract with the District Management Council to audit the upper level administration in the district. The audit looked at how to help ECISD administration connect to the plan and design actual steps to implement the plan.
During the monthly workshop meeting, ECISD Superintendent Hector Mendez sat down before the board and explained the plan he and his administrators have come up with after looking at the results of the District Management Council audit.
After the audit, a thick white binder holding the original strategic plan was reduced to a detailed slide show and then to a one-page handout. This is the road map for ECISD.
While the original plan had lots of goals and actions, the revised plan is a simplified version, matching things up so district employees are completing tasks with an eye toward reaching those overall goals. It’s also only one page long with very specific tasks to be completed.
“We, as a district, take this very seriously, and we want to make this plan a reality … to do this we needed to clarify and prioritize each of the strategies,” Mendez said. He emphasized the strategic plan is a “living document” that will change as needs arise or as goals are completed.
There are a numerous goals outlined in the original plan, but the simplified version focuses on those that are most pressing like low TAKS scores and the high dropout rate. Breaking down the plan also helps the administrators, principals and teachers understand how to apply the goals.
The one-page plan outlines the tasks to be completed by the end of summer, the end of the 2010-’11 school year and the 2011-’12 school year.
For example, by the end of the upcoming school year, the number of students enrolled in college and career readiness should have increased by 5 percent. By the end of the next school year, the number of students requiring remedial classes at college will have dropped by 20 percent. These are just a few of the things designed to help the district improve things like the high school graduation rate, employee moral and college readiness.
This version also incorporates improvement goals set by the school board earlier this year with specific goals like increasing the number of high school graduates by 20 percent and increasing the number of recognized elementary campuses by five. Board president Tom Pace warned the board to look carefully at these requirements because this is what will be used to evaluate the superintendent next year.
By the end of the meeting, trustees seemed enthusiastic about the developments. Fay Batch said both she and Mendez have advocated putting measurable goals in place for a long time, and it’s exciting to see them being put in place.
“You’ve got to know where you are to know where you’re going. Everyone needs to be literally on the same page if we’re going to get anywhere. We know what it is we’re dealing with, we know we have problems out there, and (the superintendent) has been instrumental in getting us the tools we need to do something about them,” Batch said.
Pace agreed.
“We have a lot of goals and they are all achievable, but they can’t all be done at one time. The administration came forward with a plan and now we have measurable goals to look at and see where we really are,” Pace said.
