Norwell School District Launches Strategic Planning Process for 2025
Comprehensive approach includes focus groups, surveys, and committee work to shape district's future
NORWELL, MA - May 20 - The Norwell School District is embarking on a comprehensive strategic planning process to shape its future direction through 2025, Superintendent Matthew Keegan announced at Monday's school committee meeting.
The process, set to begin this fall, will involve a series of focus groups, surveys, and committee meetings to gather input from various stakeholders and develop a new strategic plan for the district.
"We're going to have some very, very clear goals on strategic planning," Keegan said, outlining the timeline and components of the process.
Focus groups for students, staff, parents, community members, school committee, and selected community leaders will be held between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15. These sessions will be followed by surveys sent to all groups based on the information gathered.
A strategic planning committee will then be formed, consisting of all four principals, district directors, community members, and two school committee members. This committee will meet monthly starting in October, with a total of six to seven meetings planned.
"We're going to build the strategic planning committee similar to what we've done in the past," Keegan explained. "We're not going to retreat to process. This will be very much... we're going to do a big data dump over the summer."
The Teaching Learning Alliance will be brought in to assist with the process, running the focus groups and helping to compile and analyze the data collected.
Keegan emphasized the importance of having all meeting dates set by July 1, stating, "We're going to line this all up. And I'll probably be presenting to you with the July meeting exactly when these dates are."
The goal is to present a full proposal for the strategic plan to the school committee in May 2025, allowing for approval and implementation in the following school year.
In addition to the strategic planning process, Keegan discussed the upcoming leadership team retreat, which will focus on reflecting on the past year's accomplishments and setting goals for the upcoming year.
"We'll start off reflecting on that Thursday morning throughout the morning on this past year, what people have accomplished, where they're at," Keegan said. "The afternoon, we'll be having the Teaching Learning Alliance come in to go through the strategic plan."
The retreat will also involve discussions about potential district goals, including further implementation of the Panorama platform for communication and planning for a possible override and building project.
School committee members expressed interest in the process, with one member asking about their involvement in the strategic planning committee. Keegan clarified that while two school committee members will be part of the committee, their participation would not begin until October at the earliest.
As the district moves forward with this planning process, Keegan emphasized the importance of gathering input from all stakeholders to create a strategic plan that will guide Norwell schools into the future.