In the News

School District Gathers Community Input in Strategic Planning Process

October 12th, 2010

The Naugatuck Public Schools are in the "discovery" phase of developing a five-year strategic plan for the school district.

"What we're looking for is to develop a five-year comprehensive plan for the district, to improve learning for all students," said Brigitte Crispino, Naugatuck's Director of Curriculum and Instruction. "This looks at our strengths, our weaknesses, the opportunities we as a district have — the total picture. It's not focusing on any one particular skill or area."

The district has hired Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES) of Hamden to study the schools and community, and formulate the plan. ACES is a public non-profit regional educational center that serves 25 area school districts.

The process has begun, with ACES conducting focus groups to gather input from many different people in the schools and the community.

Focus groups have already taken place with "board members, senior citizens, K-12 non-certified staff, administrators, elementary families and intermediate school parents," Crispino said. These discussion groups are also planned for the remaining students, teachers and parents at the elementary, intermediate and high school levels, as well as representatives from the larger community and faith-based organizations.

While Crispino did not have specific information from the focus groups to share in an interview this past week, she said, "ACES has reported back to me that the focus groups are going well, that the individuals participating are engaged and providing a wealth of knowledge to share. And they have specific ideas about long-term planning for the district and community in terms of educational programs."

The next step, to allow more Naugatuck residents to share their thoughts, will be a survey.

"We will have surveys available to students, parents, educators and the community at large" on the school district's web site, hopefully within the next week, Crispino said.

Besides focus groups and surveys, the "discovery" phase of the planning process also includes analysis of students' academic and behavior data from the past three to five years, said Patrick Flynn, director of professional development and school improvement for ACES.

"This helps us understand what we're doing well, and what we're not doing so well, and that helps us to understand the mission, vision and values that the educational community will engage in order to educate the kids," Flynn explained. "It's absolutely essential that we have as many stake-holders from the community involved as possible.

The next steps would for ACES to present its findings to the Board of Education in February, a draft of an action plan in June, and the final strategic plan in August.

The final strategic plan will describe "what kind of changes might we expect over the next five years that ensures that each kids knows what he should do," said Flynn.

This will include examining everything from curriculum and instruction to physical facilities and even the ways the schools communicate, both internally and externally, he said, as well as "what kinds of family/school involvement could be in place to ensure a high level of quality education for our kids?"

The Naugatuck Schools did not have to engage in a strategic planning process, but it has chosen to, according to Crispino.

"This is an initiative by the district to be proactive in looking at the needs of the district in the long term, rather than on a yearly basis," she said.

But, said Flynn, by some measures, "the state has identified Naugatuck as a district in need of improvement." (See www.cmtreports.com for recent Connecticut Mastery Test scores.)

Surveys like this typically cost about $10,000, he said, and districts often receive state or federal grants to conduct them.

"The state offers support to districts that are in need of improvement," said Crispino. "We are a supported district."

The final cost of the strategic planning process depends on the number of days the district utilizes ACES, she said, explaining that Naugatuck is eligible for state funding for 15 days.

"We're going to see what we're able to accomplish in that time period," she said.

It's really, said Flynn, "A community discovering itself.. What they want to accomplish for their community and youth."

He noted that Naugatuck residents will be able to see the information gathered in the focus groups and surveys, on the district web site.

"As we get information, we'll publish it back out to the community," he said. "We'll make sure there's a place on the web site that is dedicated to the strategic planning process."