Woodland Park board posts strategic-plan draft, asks staff to refine goals

The Woodland Park School District RE-2 Board of Education on May 13 agreed to publish a draft version of a new strategic plan that includes a mission, vision, values statement and a set of strategic "pillars," while directing staff to develop measurable goals and key performance indicators.

Board members debated how prescriptive the board should be about goal language and timelines before handing the plan to staff. After lengthy discussion, the board approved a motion "to approve the mission, vision, values, and pillars" as a working draft and to "advance the draft goals to our staff" for further development and prioritization.

Superintendent Ginger Slocum told the board the draft reflects feedback gathered since January, including input from staff and the public, and stressed staff would work with principals to identify which initiatives belong in the "stabilize, strengthen, thrive" framework. "We plan to give staff the opportunity to take that a step further, identify the key initiatives, specify the detailed key performance indicators as the success metrics," Slocum said.

Trustees urged caution about setting too many expectations too quickly given limited staff capacity. One trustee summarized the board's decision as a consensus to post the work as a draft rather than ratify a final plan: "We have a consensus. Let's post it to the website and see what feedback we get," the board president said.

The board did not finalize numeric targets or a strict timeline at the meeting; trustees said they want staff to return with proposed KPIs and a prioritized set of initiatives during summer retreats and the August work session. The board also signaled it expects staged implementation rather than attempting to accomplish the entire plan immediately.

Next steps: the board will publish the plan as a working draft, solicit staff and community feedback, and review proposed KPIs and timelines at follow-up sessions before a final vote is considered.