Creating a vision for D230's future
A message from Dr. Robert J. Nolting
To All D230 Students and Families,
Although I am a few weeks shy of officially reaching out to you in the official capacity of Superintendent, I want to share some information from our May Thought Exchange stakeholder feedback opportunity.
As we embark on this transition from Dr. Gay’s leadership into the future, we are starting the next school year with a revised Mission, Vision, and Strategic Framework. When I worked under Dr. Gay and Debbie Boniface at Sandburg years ago, Dr. Gay established the Successful Schools, Successful Students (S4) Touchstones. I was proud to be part of that work and felt we had a lot of success over his 15 years in building our district within the construct of the S4 plan. One particular point of pride was the manner in which it was built - collaboratively and with inclusion of certified staff, support professionals, administration, students, families, and community members.
As with anything, time creates change and things we felt were essential to the future of D230 can evolve. Therefore, next week, we begin the process of developing a strategic framework that fits the future of D230 beginning in 2021. Throughout April and May, we shared our plan with teachers association leadership, ESP association leadership, and administrative teams. In turn, those individuals provided us names of teachers, support professionals, students, parents and administrators to serve as part of two focus groups to build our Mission / Vision.
The following process will outline the future steps to build towards the future.
May 2021 - All stakeholders were provided the opportunity to participate in a Thought Exchange. This survey/feedback tool will be the foundation for the work of the committee. Along with this message, a PDF of the executive summary is provided for your review.
June 14th and 21st - the aforementioned committee will meet to begin to build a draft of the Strategic Framework.
Mission - Our What
Vision - Our Why
Strategies / Pillars - Our How (3-5)
July 2021 - Thought Exchange will create another survey with the draft mission, vision, and strategies/pillars for feedback. We will engage members of the committee electronically with proposed modifications if any.
August 2021 - We will begin with this Framework to kick off our new school year and return to school.
2021-2022 School Year - Within the scope of our collaborative committee structures (Curriculum Advisory / TARC / Building SIP committees, Board Committees, Combined Parent Committees, and Superintendent/Principal Student Advisories) we will build the following:
Within each strategy/pillar, establish objectives and/or goal statements to provide context to how D230 will monitor progress
Determine measurements or metrics within each goal statement that are mutually agreeable, clear, and transparent. These metrics will include our current reality and desired outcomes.
Establish both building and district action plans. This final bullet will be considered transitional to the 2022-2023 school year.
2022-2023 - Our district and school plans will be both aligned with regard to a shared vision for what makes us successful and how we will measure success. However, campus plans will be tailored to each building's culture, current reality, and unique strategies based on local talents, abilities, and passions.
In addition to a safe and successful opening to the school year as we move through this incredible pandemic, building a vision for our future is a significant priority. Our overarching goals within the process is to be visible/transparent, inclusive/collaborative, and create a clear alignment that is communicative to all stakeholders and can be readily understood.
I am excited for this beginning and hope you are too. Again, please start the first step with us by reading the Thought Exchange Executive Summary. Have a great summer and we’ll reach out again in July to get your feedback!
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert Nolting
Incoming Superintendent