Northern Lehigh School District

1. Northern Lehigh School District Strategic Planning Process

2. Phase I: Setting the Stage • Products: Planning Team; Planning Process; Planning Schedule; Communications to Stakeholders; Preliminary Data Packaging

3. Phase II: Initiating the Process – Opening the Comprehensive Umbrella • Products: reinvigorated mission and beliefs, a vision and district focus (comprehensive goals) for this planning cycle

4. Phase III: Generating Mandated Plans and Action Plans • Products: action plans and all required components of each mandated plan

5. Required Components

6. Phase IV: Synthesizing The Whole • Products: comprehensive plan that integrates and aligns each of the PDE-required plans; shared understanding and commitments to action among stakeholder groups across the system

7. Phase V: Implementation And Regular Monitoring • Products: plan-aligned actions across the school system; data regarding impact; revitalization and revision of individual plans, as appropriate; regular re-engagement of stakeholders with their shared vision of a higher-performing school system and the progress being made toward creating it.

8. Recommended Planning Principles A comprehensive planning process for PA school systems should: • Focus on and through student achievement and educational processes • Build coherence and connection throughout the educational system • Generate and analyze high quality information/data (both quantitative and qualitative) • “Live” (model) and build professional learning communities • Engage people and both inform and energize their actions

9. Draw on proven planning processes, while reflecting local organizational culture and conditions • Build on existing strengths • Maximize use of existing structures to organize planning, and minimize creation of a parallel “planning” structure • Reflect the ownership and “thumb print” of leadership • Infuse all “plans” with the authentic involvement of the “whole system” • Meet all state and federal requirements while assuring that each mandated plan aligns with and contributes to the “whole” system

10. PHASE I: Initiating the ProcessLeadership of the district will: • Analyze the mandated plans to identify “who should be in the room” from the start of the planning process • Customize the planning process outlined below to accommodate local culture and conditions; establish the tentative schedule for conducting the process • Designate an internal process owner • Determine and allocate resources and support needed for the strategic planning processes

11. Recruit the comprehensive planning team • Inform stakeholders about the process: Why this? Why now? How will it occur? • Define and format (“package”) initial data to be used – student results; other locally-defined indicators of district success; regularly available process/context data [Options: These tasks can be completed during a single, multi-day meeting or as a series of shorter meetings of the leadership team]

12. Phase II: Initiating the Process – Opening the Comprehensive UmbrellaThe planning team will complete processes that include: • Honoring The Past & Present (What is the best of “what we are doing” and what are the possibilities for the future?). • Scanning the Environment (What trends and forces shape what we can and must do; what are the implications for action?) • Analyzing Student Results (What does student data suggest that our students know how to do well? That we know how to do well? Where do we need to go next?)

13. Building Future Scenarios (From the perspective of each of the required plans – what can we envision as desirable future scenarios?) • Identifying Strategic Goals (What common themes emerge from future scenario-building?) • Chartering Work Groups to build actions and specific mandated plans

14. Phase III: Generating Mandated Plans and Action Plans • Work groups “work,” completing mandated plan processes (professional education plan, teacher induction plan, special education plan, educational technology plan, NCLB district improvement plan if required), while actively seeking to build integration/ connections between each mandated plan and the comprehensive plan, including:

15. “Reengaging” the data that’s relevant for informing your planning [Mind maps: What is affecting ‘X’?; Process flow chart(s) – how do we do it now] Generate first draft of assigned plan (including action steps) [Hypothesizing and planning improvement and how to bring it about by changing process(es)] Drafting the implications for other plans and communicating them Making the connection to the larger district focus (comprehensive goals). Incorporate input from other planning groups into draft

16. Midcourse planning/integration meeting to connect the plans (seeking redundancies, gaps, areas of integration, identifying areas of contradiction/conflicting direction) and see the emerging whole. Is this hanging together? Are we aligned? • (Options: large group assembly, meeting of the chairs, document exchange) • Generate completed mandated plan drafts; action plans, per chartering in Phase II

17. Phase IV: Synthesizing The Whole • Whole group assembling of district-wide plans (a compilation of all plans) and a final assessment of alignment and coherence. Final recommendation to move the document(s) for approval, submission to the state, and implementation in the district.

18. Phase V: Implementation And Regular Monitoring • Annual implementation and review meetings to keep the process moving, to reinforce integration and coherent district actions, and to enable adjustment of plans, as appropriate.

19. Activity #1 • In groups of 3, brainstorm a list of changes you would like to see occurring in the Northern Lehigh School District over the next 6 years. Money is no object!

20. Activity #2 • In your groups, look at your list and prioritize the top five items.

21. Activity #3 • Write an action statement for attaining the top 5 changes you’d like to see. • At the bottom of each sheet, list the stakeholders for your goal… • Students • Staff • Community

22. ACTIVITY #4 • Report Out ACTIVITY #5 • Categorize Responses

23. ACTIVITY #6 • Discussion