Nov 2, 2005 By Patty Yauger 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – Administrators, faculty, board members, students and residents gathered Tuesday to assist the Connellsville Area School District as it begins the task of developing a long-range plan that will be utilized into the next decade. The state Department of Education requires school districts, vocational-technical schools and charter schools to develop a six-year strategic plan. The plan must show in detail how the school intends to incorporate the standards adopted by the department into the curriculum, according to district secondary curriculum administrator Robert McLuckey.

“Education strategic planning is a continuous process used to ensure that all students are achieving at high levels,” he said. “All districts can create better environments so that more students are successful.

“Continuous strategic planning of public districts is essential to providing increased student performance and quality results. Innovative, exemplary and research-based programs, coupled with staff development, focused and aligned resources, and public participation in planning, are critical factors in districts that demonstrate continuous growth.”

The plan is to be completed by Sept. 30, 2006, and is to include not only instruction goals, but also technology, staff development, special education and teacher induction benchmarks.

The eight stages of planning, said McLuckey, include assessing the district’s capacity to benefit, collect, sort and collect data relating to the district, build and analyze the district portfolio, set and prioritize goals, research and select effective practices, craft action plans, monitor the implementation of the plan and evaluate the impact on student achievement.

Part of the data collection process is to survey area residents, staff and students to determine their assessment of discipline in the school, drug and alcohol use, access to education in the district, school facilities, grade configuration, early childhood intervention and other issues.

“We need to determine our strengths and weaknesses as a district,” said McLuckey. “Our ultimate goal of strategic planning is to achieve improvement.

“If we have weaknesses and we identify them, then obviously our task is to do what we can to address them to the best of our ability.”

The most time consuming portion of the planning, said McLuckey, will be to determine the steps to be taken to eliminate the district shortfalls and to set goals.

A successful and high performing school district, said McLuckey, has a clear and shared focus along with high standards and expectations for all students, high levels of collaboration and communication, focused professional development, a supportive learning environment and high level of community and parent development.

McLuckey said issues that will impact the strategic plan include building closings, building renovations, budgetary constraints, dropout recovery, public relations, parental involvement and special education integration.

“I see this as an assignment that we need to take very seriously,” he said. “We need to get a lot of good input and do a conscientious job.

“We need to provide our students, not just now, but years to come, with the kind of opportunities that they need to have.

“We shouldn’t think in negative terms, that we are a poor district and can’t do any better. We can do better.”

The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.