For many years, there has been much discussion about the need for our school board to develop a strategic plan. In the last year, great progress has been made in bringing about the district's first ever strategic plan, but there is still work to do before we can put it into action. I welcome the opportunity provided by The Record to address this important issue.
What is a strategic plan and why is having one so important?
A strategic plan is a management tool that our school board desperately needs to focus the money, time, effort, energy and people in the same direction towards the same goals. This plan would include the school board's vision, mission and strategies for a multi-year time frame. Against this plan, all future policies and management decisions would be formulated. A strategic directions plan provides direction and clarity, which allows you to be competitive, communicates your strategy to everyone in your district, prioritizes the funding and gives focus to allow you to move from plans to actions. A strategic directions plan asks: where are we now, where are we going, and how will we get there?
In School District 40, we have a $58-million budget. How will we spend these dollars over the short and long term, and how will this impact our students, staff and programs? For example, we want to ensure that we draw as many students to our schools and the wonderful teachers and support staffs who teach in them, but how will we achieve this goal without everyone in our district from the board to senior management, teachers and support staff aiming our efforts strategically?
Most would agree that we all want the same thing in public education - for our students to be successful and fulfilled academically and socially, and for our staff to be fulfilled professionally and personally in their workplace. If we are all moving in different directions toward these goals, we are bound to fail, but if we strategize and concentrate our efforts on key directions agreed to by everyone in our district, then we will see greater and greater success in all areas of our district from our budget, to workplace satisfaction, to improved educational outcomes for our students (read: successes).
Anyone who follows our school district in the news knows that our board faces many issues. The constant cycle in and out of deficits creates inefficient use of resources (funding, people, services, supplies, etc.). Crisis brings about reaction as opposed to action. When we react to a crisis, our decisions are hasty and often deal only with the immediate matters at hand.
Crisis management is akin to patching a roof that needs replacing; if all you ever do is patch the holes in it, eventually the roof will come down on your head.
Concern was raised over the expense of re-engaging a consultant previously contracted by the district but nothing was said of the thousands (millions?) of dollars wasted as a result of not having a strategic plan.
Does that sound harsh? Some will say that those dollars were used to ensure that students had adequate supports or supplies in the classroom, but that is a red herring. Students may have plentiful supplies and supports in Year 1, but by Year 2, when you have to pay back the money, those same students will have to make do with less.
This has happened in New Westminster where our students and staff now have 10 per cent of the money to purchase supplies compared to last year, and we have seen a support staff reduction of eight per cent. It is difficult to argue that public education needs more money, but it is even more difficult to argue the value of the expense of $900 to prevent another crisis such as what we have seen in New Westminster school district - eight deficits in 14 years.
In Ontario, multi-year strategic plans are required under the laws in the Provincial Education Act. In British Columbia, the majority of school districts do have a strategic plan. New Westminster school district fares poorly for stability by comparison. It is well past the time that New Westminster school district implements our own strategic plan and brings about an era of stability.
Sadly, we just missed a significant opportunity to move forward towards completion of our strategic plan at Tuesday night's board meeting when the board voted against the proposal that would have provided certainty to engage a consultant and bring a strategic plan to completion.
Think about this, the past board of education from 2008 to 2011 first raised the issue of a strategic plan, and the current board of education has spent the better part of two years developing the first two phases of this plan.
Opportunity for input has been significant and yet, we are still waiting for the final phase to be completed so that we can put our strategic plan into action.
When you argue that you haven't had a strategic plan for decades and that things have been moving along tickety-boo in spite of this, you ignore the reality that we have structural flaws that need more than just a patch job.
MaryAnn Mortensen is a New Westminster school trustee.
