You may notice that a good amount of my communication is around thinking and planning ahead. Investing time and energy into visionary efforts is worth it to me.
In our visionary work, I try to dedicate time to understanding the past. This is probably a residual effect from my social studies teaching days. As I have reviewed the historical journey of the district, in my role, I concluded that one of the most important actions in recent history was identifying priority (focus) areas for the district. About 8 years ago there were six priority areas that were identified, with the help of stakeholders, from the lens of looking forward to 2030. In my opinion, an equally important step around that same time period was identifying specific actions within those priority areas. The last component was the execution on the action steps identified. I believe CSD experienced important success in some areas because of executing on those action steps.
Adaptation is often a key to continued success. It is time for CSD to update the priority areas and action steps as we look towards 2035. This has become evident through themes that emerged from survey opportunities, formal interaction/dialogue with stakeholders (both school and community), and informal interaction/dialogue with stakeholders (both school and community).
I have learned that sometimes work is doomed from the start because stakeholders are frustrated about the process. The frustration about the process overwhelms any potential outcomes. In the end, over the next couple of months we will be developing and/or reaffirming the key 5-6 priority areas of the district. After the priorities have been identified, we will develop specific action steps for each priority area. Today, we want to provide a feedback opportunity on the actual process to increase our chance for success in this work.
We recently learned that a poll can be embedded directly into this newsletter (hopefully making it quick and easy to respond). As was mentioned last year, we never want a feedback opportunity to feel like homework. We want you to have the opportunity to provide input if desired on this topic, though. In the poll below, we are asking you to select one of the options about the process of identifying priority areas and action steps (Note: The poll will be open through November 7, 2024).
Poll Options Explained
Due to character limits, we wanted to provide a little more information here. In the selection options in the poll below, "ID" is abbreviation for identifies and "CSD" refers to Columbus School District Personnel/Staff.
Option 1 (Top Option)- Columbus School District (CSD) Personnel/Staff identifies (ID) the Priority Areas and Action Steps for each Priority Area. The Priority Areas and Action Steps would be developed from themes that emerge from feedback collected.
Option 2 (Middle Option)- Columbus School District (CSD) Personnel/Staff first identifies the Priority Areas from themes that emerged from feedback collected. After Priority Areas are determined, Stakeholders (Staff, Parents, Community, Students) and Columbus School District Personnel/Staff identifies the Action Steps for each Priority Area together.
Option 3 (Bottom Option)- Columbus School District (CSD) Personnel/Staff and Stakeholders (Staff, Parents, Community, Students) identifies both the Priority Areas and the Action steps together. This would be through a multi-step process.
This is just the start to the actual process. Look for future communication from the district on this topic in our newsletter or Infinite Campus. Go Cards!
Jake Flood
Superintendent
Columbus School District
