LPOSD crafts strategic plan

SANDPOINT — A little planning goes a long way, and Lake Pend Oreille School District officials are putting that truism into practice.

At the LPOSD school board meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Shawn Woodward detailed the development of a strategic plan that will help guide district decisions over the coming years. A document that will provide detailed goals and initiatives, the plan will hopefully provide a clear vision of the future to staff and parents, trustees said.

“This is really going to be a concerted effort,” said board chairman Steve Youngdahl.

“That way, there are no surprises — everyone knows where we’re heading,” he added.

The final document will evolve from a more skeletal conceptual document detailed for trustees. The baseline document is organized into several different categories, which are further subdivided into several general goals.

For example, under teaching and learning, the guide highlights curriculum development around Idaho Core Standards and improved instructional support and evaluation. Other goals include identifying key instruction practices across the district, implementing technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness and ensuring that all learning styles and capabilities have a place within LPOSD schools.

Each goal is once again subdivided into specific ways of achieving that aim. Under curriculum development, these methods include establishing practices that encourage students to consider career and college plans early in their education. Improved writing assessment benchmarks are another curriculum feature to ensure each graduating student can capably write.

“I think everyone can agree, whether they’re pro-new standards or against them, that we want our students writing very well when they leave our schools,” Woodward said.

While the foundational document is fairly unspecific, Woodward said over the next few months, district administrators will work with staff and others to establish a clear vision of what the district wants to achieve and how it will achieve it. The strategic guide will be a fairly major undertaking, but trustees agreed a blueprint for the coming years will be an important tool to have on hand.

“It’s a lot of work, but I look forward to watching this develop,” Youngdahl said.