WEST HEMPSTEAD UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT Three Year Strategic Plan 2011-2014

Strategic Planning II Success of first Strategic Plan in guiding district priorities Ongoing need for a new strategic plan established Council members recruited Facilitators selected Meetings arranged—dates, time and place

Council Formed 43 volunteers representing students, parents, staff and community First meeting: October 27, 2010 Council met eleven times: October 27, 2010 November 8, 15, 22, 30, 2010 December 6, 2010 January 6, 2011 February 9, 2011 March 2, 9, 2011 April 6, 2011

Action Plan Subgroups: Academic Excellence Educational Equity Continuous Use of Data to Improve Instruction Educational Technology Community Relations

Academic Excellence Action Plan Goal: Increase the achievement of all students by creating learning environments that successfully balance content, pedagogy, and student-teacher-parent relationships. Strategies: Improve systemic alignment of content and strategies within each department to increase student performance on assessments. Make technology an integral component of curriculum and instruction. Create goals and implement actions to strengthen student-teacher-parent relationships and improve student achievement. Create and implement a plan to ensure that WH educators engage in Professional Development that reflects system-wide priorities. Participate in Middle States Accreditation Program.

Educational Equity Action Plan Goal: Eliminate achievement gaps with at-risk students including ELL, students with disabilities, and children of need through individualized strategies and programs. Strategies: Audit the effectiveness of current intervention programs. Develop longitudinal data collection for at-risk students. Institute a portfolio system with rubrics to include benchmarks for each grade level. Explore push-in model for support services. Encourage parent advocacy through workshops and materials. Develop a vehicle for vertical professional communication to ensure continuity of instruction. Develop a screening system for incoming students. Explore an academic summer program for K-5 and a pre-K program. Encourage consistent attendance. Celebrate the success of students.

Continuous Improvement Using Data Action Plan Goals: Use data effectively to examine system-wide programs and practices, systemize the distribution of data and guide the analysis of data to inform instruction, and standardize the monitoring of improvement and growth expected as a direct result of data analysis. Strategies: Expand communication between buildings and departments. Design Professional Development to address indicators identified through data. Develop building and district data teams. Develop a data plan to guide the process for creating building and district data teams and the distribution and use of data. Continue to use department and grade level meetings to coordinate materials, set clear and concise expectations, and identify common assessments. Explore ways to offer AIS in grade 6 and 7 within the school day.

Educational Technology Action Plan Goal: Embed technology throughout the district, build home-school connections via technology, maximize professional development, upgrade hardware and software, and integrate technology into the curriculum and pedagogical practices. Strategies: Establish parent workshops. Target professional development, explore “just in time” model. Upgrade hardware, software, and infrastructure. Derive learning outcomes from NYS, Common Core and National Educational Technology Standards for students, teachers and administrators.

Community Relations Action Plan Goals: Bring community organizations together to combine resources and energize organization participation and create events to energize students to include parents in school activities. Strategies: Include all sub-communities. Get business involved with promotion and advertising. Create a community tradition. Use ConnectEd in multiple languages. Generate spirit through assemblies/pep rallies. Create an orientation packet or online tutorial for parents to access technology (PowerSchool, Study Island) Greater distribution of information for school events. Create events that encourage family activities in the schools.

Common Elements of all Action Plans: At the final meeting of the council on April 6, 2011, when each subgroup shared goals, the members identified common themes among the subgroups: Student achievement Collaboration Parent/student engagement Focus on students’ needs Vertical collaboration Systemic approach Raising expectations Self evaluation Active engagement Accountability Commitment Trust Data driven decisions Parental involvement Quality professional development aligned with organizational needs and reflecting goals of the strategic plan Pilot activities Ownership People working together Teamwork—power of the whole

Council Feedback and Reflection Favorable set of perceptions to the entire strategic planning process Need to continue the process over the life of the plan Faith in the capacity of the plan to raise student achievement Growing sense of cohesion among the group as they think systemically and use real data to make recommendations

Recommendations from Dr. Bernato Keep the plan before stakeholders in many ways—take the plan “on the road.” Continue to use hard data to measure the plan’s success. The plan should be organic. Retain the council in some form. Link the plan’s expectations to the school improvement teams. Do not lose sight of closing the equity gap. Do not lose sight of the Middle States accreditation goal.

Additional Recommendations: Keep the Strategic Planning Council in place and continue to meet regularly to self assess progress towards goals. Present an annual report of progress on the Strategic Plan to the Board of Education and Community each spring. During the winter of 2013-14 form a third Strategic Planning Council to assess the success of this plan and develop a subsequent plan for 2014-17.

Thank you! Council members for your time and commitment to the process; Dr. Richard Bernato, outside facilitator, for sharing his expertise; Ms. Murray and the middle school staff for serving as hosts; Superintendent John Hogan for initiating this process; and The Board of Education for supporting this process.