AS I SEE IT

Plan will give voice to patrons, direction to KC School District

Kansas City School District Superintendent John Covington

More News

The Kansas City School District is on the path to success, and we’re counting on community stakeholders to lead us through our new strategic planning initiative. The support of our patrons is vital to making this historic effort a success.

The initiative is an effort to develop a community-driven mandate for the future of Kansas City’s schools. This plan will set clear objectives and action steps for nearly every aspect of the district’s operations — curriculum, communications, safety and security, business operations and much more.

In the past, these types of efforts often focused on specific areas or activities. As a result, we’ve compiled an impressive list of plans and programs, none of which addresses the total scope of how we do business. This effort will change that. However, the district cannot develop a plan to serve the community while working in isolation from the community.

We want this effort to be a rousing success, a movement that lays the foundation for one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of American public education. As a result, we need to make a plan in lockstep with the goals and desires of those we serve. As this effort speeds ahead we will collect and distill ideas from a diverse group of more than 500 people. We hope the process will begin this school year. We will begin seeking volunteers for the planning effort in the near future.

In the meantime, six community leaders and two district employees traveled to Arlington, Va., to participate in an important training to allow them to lead the district through the process. The steering committee members are Gwen Grant, Ajamu Webster, Patricia Mansur, Mary Ellen DeCoursey, Charles Caisley, Adriana Pecina, and school district staffers Jeff McDaniels and Mary Esselman.

Again, the goal is to hear the ideas and thoughts of people from throughout the community. The steering committee members are proven communicators, people we think are able to work closely and effectively to help funnel thoughts from the community into a fresh, effective blueprint for the Kansas City School District. This group of dedicated people — using community ideas — will develop the framework for the initiative and assist the district in identifying the diverse group who will take a leading role in drawing up the plan.

Once the strategic plan is complete, I will ask the school board to adopt it as policy. The strategic plan then will serve as a roadmap for our district in the months and years ahead.

The new strategic plan will be a living document, one that will remain valid and useful as the district grows from its current level of success to finally attaining the potential that has eluded it in recent years. Most importantly, it will be a plan created by people in the Kansas City School District. The idea is to assemble a plan not for the district, but a blueprint to help improve the education and lives of our students and their families.

The ultimate hope is the plan will serve as a comprehensive version of our mission and vision statements. The plan will define what school district patrons expect of the district, and they will tell us how to reach our destination. As we get closer to the launch, it is my hope that the community will step forward and work collaboratively with us to design a plan that will serve our children for years to come.

John Covington is the superintendent of the Kansas City School District. He was unanimously selected by the school board last spring after serving as superintendent of Pueblo (Colo.) City Schools. He lives in Kansas City.

• Most Read