Strategic Planning Session Sets Tone for School Year

The first bell of the school year is still almost three weeks away. But District leaders have already developed the blueprint that could determine its success at the annual District Strategic Planning Session.

“It’s the most important meeting of the year. We review what we did last year and see what we want to do this year. It’s critical to the District,” said Board of Education President Pete Nowacki.

“This really sets the direction for the school year,” said Dr. Jason A. Andrews, Superintendent of the Windsor Central School District.

The goals for the upcoming school year include increasing the graduation Rate to 92% and decreasing the Drop-Out Rate to less than 4%. The District also wants to improve student performance on state assessments to rank in Top 4 districts in Broome-Tioga BOCES on average. It also wants to achieve 85% of Students Reading at or Above Grade Level in Grades K-8 and attain 95% participation in school/community programs among students in grades PK-12.

“Our biggest priority is to continue to focus on student excellence at all levels. We want to keep making headway on that. My biggest concern is how do we keep staff from burning out with all of the great things we have going on? They do a great job. How do we support them?” said Nowacki.

It was during last year’s meeting that the District finalized plans to put a capital project before voters. The result was a $14.15 million plan voters approved in April that includes safety and security upgrades at all five District buildings, a multi-purpose artificial turf athletic field, a media recording studio and a S.T.E.A.M. (Science Technology Engineering Art/Agriculture and Mathematics) room.

“This year one of our priorities is reaching the specific objectives in the design and programming of the plan to impact student opportunities,” said Andrews.

The District is also going to continue to utilize its partnerships with businesses, colleges and universities to build pipelines to colleges and careers for students. Some examples of these pipelines are Project Lead the Way, a k-12 engineering curriculum, Ag in the Classroom and health care education.

“Every (Board) meeting we have goes back to this. This sets everything up. We look back at this as we go throughout the year,” said Nowacki.

The Board formally adopts District and building-level goals at this meeting.

“The Board members commit an entire day in order to engage deeply in the work. This shows their commitment to the District,” said Andrews.