Brunswick City Schools unveils its proposed five-year strategic plan

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Schools staff presented the key aspects of the district's proposed five-year strategic plan, which are academic achievement, student support, communication, family and community engagement, and finances and facilities, during the board of education's meeting Tuesday. Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said local stakeholders were involved in the creation of the strategic plan. The district's "Journey of a Blue Devil" competencies, which are responsibility, communication, adaptability, empathy and critical thinking, were used to help guide the process. "The strategic plan will help us to establish the direction of our school by assessing where we are today, and really help us to envision where we want to be," he said. "A strategic plan is a fluid process." Assistant Superintendent Kathy Verhest said academically, the district will focus on real-world learning experiences and professional development for staff. Brunswick City Schools aspires to provide students with opportunities like apprenticeships and to create community partnerships to give students career connections. "(A goal is) to maximize student achievement while providing a positive learning environment for all students," she said. Director of Student Services Stephanie Morgan said the district intends to support students' physical, mental and behavioral needs, so they are able to learn. Other ways to support students consisted of making them feel a sense of belonging and ensuring everyone has a plan for the future. "Our goal is to raise critical thinkers who are contributing to their society," she said. "Their society while they're with us for those 13 years is the school community." Community Relations Coordinator Dawn Allar focused on communication. She said a priority for the district is enhancing the way the schools share and receive information to all groups, including community members who do not have a student in the district. Brunswick City Schools plans to share information through a variety of channels and wants to communicate in other languages for families whose primary language is not English. "The second goal we have is to implement and refine a framework that allows stakeholders to engage in reciprocal communication," she said. "The only way we can foster mutual trust and an air of transparency is to allow our stakeholders to be able to provide information and feedback to us." Developing leadership skills and providing students with community services with community service opportunities is another priority for the district, Niedermeyer said. A goal is to enhance the level of engagement the district has with families and people in the community. "We're not reinventing the wheel," he said. "What we want to do is ramp it up and create more relationships with area businesses (or) with any community entity that's willing to participate with us to help our students be prepared for the future." Lastly, Treasurer Mark Pepera said all the district's goals have to be financially sustainable. Another priority is keeping the master facilities plan updated with short- and long-term goals, now that the bond issue to build a new Brunswick High School has passed. "Over and over, a lot of folks' comments were, 'We want our schools to have a sustainable future,'" he said. "'We don't want the school to be on the ballot all the time asking us for money. We have given support to the schools, and we want them to perform.' That's an expectation, and we want our schools to be transparent." The board of education will have the chance to adopt the strategic plan in August, Niedermeyer said. Over the next six weeks, the board will establish the priorities and the major focus areas of the strategic plan for the next school and beyond. "From a transparency perspective, we have every intention of developing a dashboard for our website," he said. "Anyone in our community who wants to know what are the Brunswick City School District staff really focused on (or) what's a hot button for them right now, you're going to be able to see areas of priority by year as we go through that." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.