SEARCHOur goals provide organizational focus for our district. Key initiatives support each goal to provide the work categories that will render success. The more specific tactics outlined for each initiative are the concrete action steps for staff to implement over the next three years.
Goal #1- Engage, Educate, Empower
Expectation: Every classroom and program in the district will support high-quality, universally accessible learning experiences across the content areas to foster the SLUSD competencies expressed in the Graduate Profile.
- Deliver comprehensive, standards-based TK-12 science and history-social science education through newly adopted board curriculum and the development of corresponding assessments and projects.
- Engage students in daily cross-curricular instruction using Project-Based Learning methods, arts integration, and social justice standards to address real-world, relevant issues and themes.
- Improve performance outcomes for students in mathematics to ensure that every student, including multilingual students, students with disabilities, and other historically marginalized student groups, have powerful, joyful learning experiences that foster positive mathematical identities.
- Foster critical literacy in English Language Arts and across the content areas for all students by centering complex texts and systematic language development opportunities throughout the instructional day that intentionally develops our English Language Learners’ multilingual success.
- Strengthen comprehensive and inclusive assessment systems that provide students multiple and varied opportunities to make learning visible and support equitable grading practices.
- Explore and expand alternative education and expanded learning opportunities for students TK-12 to support both intervention, enrichment, and multimodal ways of teaching and learning.
- Enhance implementation of our Multi-tiered Integrated Intervention Support System to comprehensively address academic and behavioral goals of TK-12 students.
- Systematize supportive, collaborative transitions from elementary to middle to high school through inter-school programs.
- Build educators’ capacity to support students by using anti-racist and culturally linguistically responsive practices, arts-integrated methodology, and Universal Design for Learning.
Goal #2- Educational Equity through College and Career Readiness
Expectation: Comprehensive, adaptive, and productive TK-12 career and college programming, with work-based learning and post-secondary opportunities, robust mentoring, aligned with the SLUSD Graduate Profile.
- Foster civic engagement and leadership through community partnerships, work-based learning, and implementation of State Seal of Civic Engagement program and Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.
- Develop and apply critical media and information literacies at school and in the community.
- Cultivate career, college, and lifelong goal achievement by strengthening mentoring, academic counseling, career & college counseling, community partnerships, and local and national programming access.
- Expand initiatives and efforts that prioritize multilingualism and raise multilingual student achievement across all content areas, including expansion and maintenance of Dual Language Immersion programs, world language programs, and access to the state Seal of Biliteracy.
- Systematize structured supports that address the needs of long-term English learners and newcomer students.
- Develop self and social awareness for collaborative solutions to community issues that impact students’ day-to-day lives.
- Implement an integrated teaching model that embeds social-emotional learning competencies across the content areas.
- Utilize an assets-based multi-tiered intervention and post-intervention framework for ongoing student mental health and wellness, emphasizing anti-racist, trauma-informed care, healing-centered engagement, and restorative practices to reduce disparities in discipline and better respond to students’ needs.
Goal #3- Equity Centered Effective Employee Engagement
Expectation: All staff and district partners meaningfully collaborate and remain fully engaged around our student learning goals to provide outstanding educational experiences to all students
- Cultivate support for employees to deliver gold standard customer service.
- Improve fiscal processes to maximize funds, staff, and other resources for equity and excellence.
- Celebrate staff contributions to the District.
- Attend to employee safety and wellness in the workplace and awareness about resources in the district and community.
- Attract, hire and retain the best employees in the District to meet district-wide goals for cultural competency.
- Develop the skills for all employees through professional development and create pathways for professional advancement within the organization.
- Recruit teachers and administrators that reflect the diversity of our students.
- Engage staff with ongoing training to create school environments that support all students, staff, & families to thrive regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, or abilities.
- Implement compelling teacher collaboration practices within and across schools to foster cycles of inquiry and expand the sharing and alignment of professional expertise in the service of continuous improvement and success for all learners.
Goal #4- Valuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Families and Communities
Expectation: SLUSD will support and strengthen reciprocal relationships between families and our community that enhance our students’ positive social, emotional and academic development.
- Systematize parent engagement analysis at the district and site level to respond to student needs at home and prepare for post-secondary college and career choices.
- Deliver outstanding, consistent translation services to our multilingual community.
- Provide and participate in various engagement forums that provide feedback.
- Foster partnerships with families, local industries, public agencies, public foundations, and our city to maximize resources to support all students.
- Build family leadership capacity and ensure a high standard of family engagement.
- Provide informative, responsive school websites and communication.
- Evaluate, analyze best practices for gender-neutral and inclusiveness in language, policies.
Goal #5- Environmental and Technology Equity
Expectation:SLUSD will improve and maintain facilities and technology infrastructure to provide optimal learning environments for all students.
- Implement the following Measure N bond projects successfully: New high school gymnasium, new continuation high school campus, new entryways, new field, and new middle school modular buildings.
- Initiate planning for additional bond projects, including classroom and field renovations.
- Continue to maintain our facilities for future generations of students.
- Maintain our state of the art technology infrastructure.
- Install and maintain energy-efficient infrastructure and utilize green building methods to reduce district impact on climate change.
- Maintain focus on the energy efficiency of district buildings and reducing total CO2 emissions.
- Sustain the availability of personalized learning devices for students by enacting a regular cycle of review and replacement to ensure access to modern technology.
- Facilitate safe and secure opportunities for all students to have consistent access to the internet and software resources needed to develop 21st-century skills, whether learning on or off-campus.
- Empower the entire SLUSD community’s use of technology by creating a resilient, safe, and secure high-speed network environment.
- Create training opportunities and resources to ensure all staff and students can efficiently and fluently utilize adopted technology platforms.
OUR IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE AND APPROACH
As we operationalize the five goals through our key initiatives, our timeline and approach is as follows:
- YEAR 1 (2021-2022): SLUSD will analyze our current readiness levels in each of the five areas. We will plan the tactics necessary to ensure effectual, sustainable implementation of the key initiatives that support each goal.
- YEAR 2 (2022-2023): SLUSD will implement key initiatives and monitor improvement efforts to ensure we have optimal conditions for effectual, sustainable implementation.
- YEAR 3 (2023-2024): Based upon our monitoring of implementation, SLUSD will evaluate and adjust to align goals and the associated key initiatives with the outcomes intended for students, families, and employees. This evaluation and these adjustments will inform the next round of strategic action planning for the district.
OUR PROCESS
January 2021 Phase One: Planning and Development
The strategic plan process began with a board study session and workshop on January 19, 2021. Trustees, the senior management team, and the superintendent engaged in a workshop focused on two primary tasks: evaluating our 2017-2020 strategic plan outcomes and participating in a design session to develop the following five key areas. Through various activities and facilitated discussions, the team developed a preliminary draft of the new five goals.
Cabinet members refined the initial goals and began drafting key initiatives necessary for implementation. Cabinet then worked with department managers to revise and refine the key initiatives and tactics for the implementation of each goal.
February 2021 Phase Two: Engagement and Revision
After completing this first work cycle, district leaders shared the five new goals and key initiatives with site administrators and other site staff constituencies, given so much of the implementation of our plan is nested within our individual school communities.
Simultaneously, throughout February and March, a series of multilingual community engagement events were held to listen and learn from the community about our current strengths and opportunities for improvement. These community engagement events also allowed staff to present preliminary goals and receive constructive feedback. Community members who participated provided the revisions and refinements that the staff made before finalizing both the strategic plan and the aligned Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) — which provides the budgetary commitments that will support our implementation efforts. Staff also shared the preliminary plan with other key stakeholder groups for feedback, including collective bargaining units and community-based organizations.
April and May 2021 Phase Three: Refinement and Adoption
Based on the input gathered, the staff made revisions and produced the final version of the plan for the board of education to review and adopt. The final draft was shared with trustees in advance of the scheduled May 11 board meeting for review. Trustees adopted the plan at the May 11th board meeting. This action allowed for staff to align the LCAP, staffing, and budgets to the new goals. District staff will begin to market the new strategic plan through the appropriate channels.