About Strategic Planning

Meeting the unique needs of every student and preparing them to achieve their life goals isn’t just a dream – it’s a challenge worth meeting! That’s why NAPLS launched a strategic planning process in the fall of 2009.  The goal of this effort was to craft a far-reaching vision and mission to guide our plans and decisions for the coming years.

One of the Board of Education’s and Administration’s foremost goals is for the District to become one of the most respected K-12 public educational institutions in the nation, by providing exceptional programming, service, and opportunities to the district’s students.

It had been 17 years since our last strategic plan was developed. That plan and its updates had served us well as we moved from a rural district of 761 students to the diverse, vibrant district of nearly 4,300 students we are today. In that time, our community has changed, our school district has changed, and our financial picture has changed. The strategic planning process provided us the opportunity as a community to determine what our collective values are.

Formal work on the new Strategic Plan commenced with a three-day Planning Committee meeting, held in January, 2010.  A 38-member Planning Committee developed a draft report containing agreed upon belief statements, objectives, parameters for decision-making, a new mission statement, as well as ten strategies for fulfilling the new mission.

In February, 2010, ten Strategic Planning Action Teams began developing results statements and action plans in order to address the strategies identified by the Planning Committee.  The Action Teams were comprised of staff and community members, who met weekly from mid-February through mid-May, 2010.  As a result of this work, 48 action plans were developed to guide the district’s course over the next five years.

The Board of Education accepted our new Strategic Plan on July 26, 2010, and work began immediately to begin to prioritize the implementation plan.

Cambridge Strategic Services

NAPLS used the Cambridge Strategic Services Planning Model.  This organization represents the culmination of over thirty-five years’ experience in Strategic Planning and organizational development for corporations and educational organizations throughout the world.  The principles and disciplines implemented in this model are taken from Strategic Planning for America’s Schools, authored by Dr. Bill Cook.  The foundation of the model focuses on a strategic planning process that includes both district staff and community members utilizing a prescribed format to arrive at an aspirational, achieveable, and supportable plan for the community’s schools.

Under this model we created a plan that:

• Is based on consensus from all stakeholders in the school system.
• Aligns and focuses resources in the district toward achieving one unifying mission.
• Impacts all levels of the district including classrooms, school sites, central office, and the community.
• Engages in a continuous renewal process that ensures we will adjust to changing conditions and continue moving forward