Colby committee adjusts 2023 goals
The Colby strategic planning committee met for the second time to finalize a list of goals to present to the school board at the board’s meeting later this month.
The committee featured school administration, school board members, staff, and community members who wished to have their voices heard on what priorities the board should be focusing on in the near future.
The district began the planning process by administering a 23 question survey to staff, students and community members to get their thoughts on what issues should be prioritized by the board.
The questions involved five categories which included teaching and learning, community engagement, technology, facilities and family involvement. The questions were allowed survey takers the opportunity to rank which issues are most important and least important. There was also the opportunity to leave comments as needed.
Superintendent Dr. Steven Kolden led the proceedings as he divided the attendees into groups and had them work on which topics could be removed from the plan, kept in the plan or put into different categories to be presented to the board.
The categories and topics that were decided upon are as follows:
Teaching and learning
n Staff development
n Recruitment strategies
n Research based best practices
n Comprehensive plan for curriculum
n Monitor student learning
n Improve school climate
n Training on new technologies
n Cyber and internet safety
n Improve and maintain ELL support
Community engagement
n Attract and retain students
n Engage the community
n Promote and secure alternate funding
n Develop public relations plan
Technology resources
n Maintain rotation and upgrade of devices
n Support fiscal resources for technology
Facilities
n Enhance school ground/Athletic fields
n Enhance interior design of high school These questions will be re-administered to a survey group of community members, school staff and students before finalizing the list of questions to be presented to the board.
The committee discussed how to increase the number of survey takers. One staff member suggested the school take time out of the school day to have staff and students take the survey.
The first survey contained answers from 25 staff, 12 students and 118 community members. For comparison, the district has 143 staff, around 300 high school students and well over 1,000 parents spread throughout the various communities within the district.
