Board discusses updates for Strategic Plan

During the Board of Education meeting on April 10, Superintendent Dr. Dicky Barlow presented to board members and present faculty and community members revisions to the school’s 14 goals in their Strategic Plan — which was last updated in the late `90s.

“They are great goals,” he said. “Except that because we’ve been focusing on those things for the last 20 years … we’ve gotten to the point where most of these we’re doing in our sleep,” Barlow said.

After creating a Discovery Team of various representatives within the district, the original list of 14 goals was revised to four, which will be focused on over the next five years.

The first goal focuses on amplifying student voices to create deeper engagement and learning through meaningful and purposeful work. Students will also be motivated to advocate for themselves, which is part of encouraging student engagement both in and out of the classroom. 

“You can’t walk through one of our schools without someone mentioning the word engagement,” Barlow said. The hope is to inspire more student empowerment throughout the district. “There are pockets of this already happening in our school district … but we don’t want pockets, we want this part of our culture.”

The second goal aims to create a comprehensive and cohesive system to increase student, staff and community commitment. With this goal, officials want to create a working unit of faculty, administration and students through what Barlow called “an open and inclusive district system,” as opposed to many departments or district members working independently of one another.

Having an open and inclusive system translates into the Strategic Plan’s third goal, which is to develop a district wide communication plan for both universal and specific audiences.

“We communicate all the time in our school district,” he said. “But what we recognize is that we need to be smart about it.”

With this plan, officials will be able to communicate with all members of the district as needed, such as in the event of school closings, or to key audiences, such as by grade.

The final goal is to ensure that all members of the district and those who are associated with the district are treated with respect. Barlow said this would be encouraged by maintaining classrooms as safe spaces, both physically and psychologically, and ensuring that students and staff respect and honor diversity.

While the original list of 14 goals is slated to be updated, Barlow said these four goals are not replacing those goals, but rather revising them. The decision to accept the revised Strategic Plan was tabled until the following Board of Education meeting to allow for community feedback and input.

Also during the Board of Education meeting on April 10, board members:

• Approved the minutes from the meeting on March 13.
• Heard updates regarding the school system’s financial statements.
• Acknowledged the accomplishments of the district’s robotics teams, many of which made finals and placed at the VEX IQ State Championships. Team 31337P, composed of Adrienne Belser, Mary Long, Lara Sofia Maus and Eric Acosta, also earned the Excellence Award, which qualifies them for the World Championships.
• Acknowledged the success of the MBJH Concert Band, which earned superior ratings for a performance of a sight-read piece during the Alabama Bandmasters Association Music Performance Assessment for the eighth straight year.
• Acknowledged the success of the Mountain Brook Schools Debate Team, which qualified seven students to the National Championships. The National Championships will be held at Mountain Brook Schools, along with other Birmingham area schools, the week of June 18-23.
• Approved personnel recommendations.
• Approved the disposal of surplus materials.
• Announced that the Student Showcase will be on April 24 in Crestline Village at 5 p.m.; MBHS will present the musical “Pippin” from April 27-29 at 7 p.m. and April 30 at 2 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center; Mountain Brook Schools Retirement Tea will be on May 11 at 3:30 p.m. at the MBJH Cafeteria.

The following board meeting will take place on May 15 at 3:30 p.m. in the Professional Learning Center. High school graduation will be on May 22 at 6 p.m. at Samford University.