Jim Taylor

& Eliza Hallabeck

Published: September 12, 2022 07:00 AM

At the August 23 meeting, the school board heard a presentation from Richard Lemons, Partners For Educational Leadership, on the strategic plan proposal.

Education Leadership Partners support 63 of the state’s 169 school districts with strategic planning and beyond. Lemons told the board that he “works with a great group of people,” and the Hartford nonprofit has been around for 25 years.

The organization has worked with Newtown in the past. The organization’s core practice is to “work with districts and other organizations to strengthen leadership, systems, and improvement strategies to achieve more equitable outcomes for students.”

They do this through “coaching, consulting and development.”

“That expertise and experience speaks volumes for what we have to offer,” said Lemons. Regarding his strategic plan, Lemons said it was important to make sure the plan “has a real impact on real kids in real classrooms, not ideas in the clouds.” I was.

The school board then voted to approve the strategic plan at its September 6 meeting.

tailored to the region

All Partners For Educational Leadership services, including strategic planning, are tailored to the district. When school districts work on their strategic plans alone, they often find many flaws in those plans, Lemons said.

“Strategic planning is often used in ways that defeat it,” said Lemons.

Some of these flaws focus on template perfection. Create an exhaustive and often disparate list of activities. Create a plan using only a few readers. Focus on the “room space” rather than directly addressing the lesson. Treat the plan as a “full work” rather than a living document that is constantly changing. And we underestimate the form of competence necessary to carry out the plan.

“Atypical approaches work best,” says Lemons. “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that planning is the best idea at the moment. Planning must always be in a state of rethinking and revision.”

Lemons also said that allowing more stakeholders to contribute and feel ownership of the plan could make or break the plan’s success.

Partners for Educational Leadership helps school districts plan for the uncertainties of change and improvement. Define a small number of high-leverage improvement priorities. Owned, understood and used by stakeholders throughout the district. It is future-oriented and focuses on how an organization works, not just how it works. Identify strategies that directly target the quality of children’s learning experiences. We focus as much on the execution system and continuous improvement as on the plan itself.

“A strategic plan is more than just a document,” says Lemons. “To be effective, you have to shift your practice to the new, better things the district is doing. It’s about figuring out how to make sure that they guide their work.”

Future process

The proposed strategic planning process begins with a needs assessment and moves to “foundational deliverables” such as the vision, mission, and integration of the school district’s Alumni Portraits plan. It then outlines an improvement framework that includes broad target areas, broad strategic actions, and key measures.

School boards will be key and key stakeholders, commissioning task forces, developing parameters, and receiving recommendations for consideration for adoption.

A task force will be formed to work within the Commission’s mandate and to glean insights and perspectives from the community. Create a draft plan component.

Finally, a wide range of stakeholder groups, including staff, administrators, parents and even students, will provide insights, input and perspectives as well as a “feedback loop” on initial thinking and planning by the task force. is used to

The School Board, with the assistance of the Superintendent, makes the final decision and, ultimately, can accept, modify, or return potential plans for more work.

After the draft strategic plan was approved on Sept. 6, school principal Chris Melillo said district administrators, teachers and community members will participate in the planning process. When it comes to what the district wants and what the alumni are aiming for, Melillo said it’s better to create a roadmap.

“You need a plan to make it happen,” says Melillo.

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com and Education Editor Eliza Halabeck can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.

Richard Lemmons