School district strategic plan getting updates

Administrators tweaking goals after many of them were not achieved this year
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

Shawano School District could be revamping its strategic plan after a review of the latest goals showed many, especially those geared toward student success, were not achieved.

Only one of the six goals laid out under student success was achieved. That goal was to have a four-year graduation rate of 94% or higher as reported on the state report cards, and Shawano had a 94.3% graduation rate.

The other five goals were the following:

• Exceeding or significantly exceeding expectations on the state report card as a district. Olga Brener Intermediate School exceeded expectations as an individual school, but the overall district score only met expectations.

• Meeting or exceeding the state average in literacy and math as measured by state assessments. Shawano’s scores were below the state average.

• Chronic absenteeism rate for the district of 89 or higher as reported on the report card. Shawano’s absenteeism rate was 85.7.

• A score of 85 or higher for being on-track for high school graduation. Shawano’s score was 81.4.

• Having 90% of all students meet their growth percentage as measured by the Star Assessment. Shawano was below 90%.

The strategic plan was initially developed two years ago through community groups, according to interim Superintendent Kurt Krizan, with it ending in 2038, when the children born in 2020 would be graduating from high school. That prompted district officials to develop goals for each year to determine whether the strategic plan was progressing. The goals were shared with the Shawano School Board early in 2022, Krizan said.

“We determined that either the goals were not met, or they were written in a way that was not achievable or measurable in a year’s time,” Krizan said. “We have some baseline data, and we have some areas that we need to improve upon.”

He told the board it might be better to set up goals and processes that can be achieved in a five-year period rather than setting goals, especially unattainable ones, on an annual basis.

“Some of the work that we’ve been doing as a leadership team is a draft of a strategic plan that will take us from 2022 to 2027 and looking at some of those goals as we go through,” Krizan said. “We’re talking about honoring the work of the previous strategic plan group but also tying in some of the history that we have as well, so that we have something that represents the district for the next five years.”

He added that being a school district that overall exceeds state standards or better is a goal Shawano should continue to strive toward.

Board member Karen Smith applauded Krizan’s efforts to revise the plan, noting that it didn’t originally come about with all the input from community members who participated.

“Talking with some of the community members who were in that group, they said they felt like their voice was not really represented when the final document came out,” Smith said. “The first time I saw the current strategic plan was when it was presented in the board packet. It was a lot of words, and some of it wasn’t measurable, like you said. So I applaud you and your team for coming back around and celebrating what had been done, but realizing we need to take some of the good and refine it so it’s reasonable.”

Board member Mart Grams agreed with Smith’s assessment of the original strategic plan.

“The original strategic plan was just babble,” Grams said. “It didn’t say anything, like most strategic plans don’t do.”


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com