Imagine you are about to take a road trip for a well deserved vacation. You have two choices. You can throw a few things together in a suitcase and take off driving, or you can plan out your trip to a chosen destination. In my personal life, I would often prefer the first choice. There’s a sense of adventure and freedom in spontaneity. And, there are also risks. What happens if you break down? What happens if you don’t pack the right kind of clothing? What if you get lost? How do you even know when you arrive?
The second choice -- mapping your destination, creating a plan to get there and setting a timeline -- takes a bit more work up front. You may not have the same sense of spontaneity that you might have with choice one. But the plan allows you to pack correctly, to budget more efficiently and to know when you’ve arrived. And, having a plan does not limit one’s ability to stop along the way for something interesting, or to amend the plan as needed.
Parallels can be drawn between the above scenarios and leading public schools. You can either have a vision and plan for where you want to go and how you are going to get there -- or not. If you have a plan and use it to guide decision making, you are better able to allocate resources and ultimately better serve the students and families of the community. When planning a trip, it’s important that those involved in the trip have some say in what’s happening. The same is true when creating a plan for schools-- those served by the plan need to have a say in what is developed.
Cass Lake-Bena Schools, with assistance from the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) adopted a strategic plan in 2019 that is set to expire at the end of 2024. As the board begins the work of refreshing and revising the plan, there is recognition that students, families, community members and staff need to have input into the plan. At the May 22 regular board meeting, the following timeline for gathering input and developing the plan was adopted:
May 2024
Interviews with seniors (Data Gathering)- Superintendent
Baseline survey with staff -Superintendent/tech group
June 2024
Interviews with community members- Administrative Team
Bena-Fest (Individual) June 15
Interviews with business owners- Superintendent
July 2024
Board Listening Session/Open Forum School Board
Interviews with community members- Administrative team
Cass Lake Days, July 13 2024
Interviews with business owners- Superintendent
August 2024
Community Survey on Website- Superintendent/tech staff
Review status of current plan -Superintendent & Board
August Working Session
Interviews with business owners- Superintendent
September 2024
Interviews with students 9-12 Superintendent & Admin Team
Staff interviews Superintendent & Admin Team
October 2024
October 2, 5:00 pm Special Board Working Meeting - review feedback
& work on new goals collaboratively -Board, Admin Team & Interested students, staff, community
Prepare draft of goals/plan -Superintendent
Draft Goals Reviewed at October meeting Board
November 2024
Revisions made to goals as recommended- Superintendent
November 1, 2024
Board adopts new plan at regular meeting School Board
The point of the listening sessions and personal interviews is to seek out input from the community in ways that we haven’t before. We believe in the importance of collaboration with our community. We also recognize the need to define success on our own terms, based on the values and culture of the community. We know that successful completion of the road trip called school isn’t really related to test scores, and part of creating the map will be identifying those measures of success for Cass Lake-Bena, by Cass Lake-Bena. Keep watching our website and social media pages for more communication about the planning process!