Hays CISD Superintendent Jeremy Lyon rolled out a draft of the district’s strategic plan — mission statement, beliefs, strategic objectives, parameters and strategies — on Monday, October 19, 2009, the culmination of a three-day intensive planning effort by 28 members of the internal and external district communities.

“We spent three days looking at aspirations and reality,” he told the School Board. “And this strategic plan draft is our attempt to fill that gap.”

Lyon read the six strategies, each of which will become the charge of a 10-15 member Action Team. The Action Teams will comprise members of the community and Hays CISD employees and will work throughout the next four months to create operational plans to realize each strategy. The draft strategies are:

• We will revolutionize the learning experience by meeting the needs of 21st Century learners through relevant curriculum and engaging instruction guided by personalized educational plans.
• We will remove barriers to student performance by assessing physical, social and emotional needs and providing necessary supports.
• We will create an employee-friendly organization based on the ideals of trust and communication.
• We will actively establish relationships with community and business groups to enhance educational opportunities in support of the District’s mission.
• We will develop infrastructure to support robust technology integration across the organization and all curricula.
• We will infuse instruction with environmental stewardship and integrate sound environmental practices into facility design, construction, and operation.

The Action Teams will take recommendations first to the Strategic Planning Team and then to the School Board in April or May 2010.

“Now we will create six action teams,” Dr. Lyon said. “This is the point where you describe the plan as operationalized. It is where you take it from the conceptual stage to what you are actually going to do.”

“We spent three long, hard days and we worked very diligently,” said Patti Wood, president of the School Board and one of two board members who served on the Strategic Planning Team. “It is very well thought out, very organized. But we are not going to let it sit there on paper. We will make it accountable, with a timeline and a roadmap for how we’re going to do it in the next five years.”

“It was quite a pleasure because of the wide variety of people (who made up the Strategic Planning Team),” said Ralph Pfluger, another board member who served during the three days. “From the 30 people, we came up with the same thoughts time after time.”

Pfluger urged his fellow board members to educate themselves with “what is going on and why we are doing it. We’re at a fork in the road. Let’s take a look at what we’re doing and how it will raise our expectations and aspirations.”

Strategic Planning Team (pdf)

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