Does Your School Have A Plan

Are you getting ready for the World Cup? Do you have a favourite country that you want to win? Here in Canada our country isnt' involved, but we're still recovering from the Winter Olympics and the end of another marathon NHL Hocky season.

I was just reading in my Google Alerts and noted that St. Margaret's School in Edinburgh is closing after 120 years. They stated that it was due to declining enrollment and the economy. I'm not sure what the full story is behind the situation, but I never like to see a school close. This is even closer to my heart since I was Head of Queen Margaret's School, which was part of their association, so I knew the school.

I'm always shocked to see school's close. It is not a sudden decision, but rather a slow death. Most schools don't take the time to lay out a road map to achieve their mission and  vision, and take into consideration issues that are arising. A good strategic plan will help a board to understand the difference between being "reactive" - solving the problem today - and "proactive" - eliminating the problem in the future. Ineffective boards just ride from ride from crisis to crisis. 

What sustainable schools have is a plan that provides a framework to enable them to focus and coordinate their resources, work towards common goals, and assess and adjust as they move forward.

A good example is a school HEG completed a strategic plan for in Tenneessee. At the time HEG was retained, their enrollment and resources were in a critical state. Through the development and implementation of a visionary plan, they've increased their enrollment four times over and are on solid financial ground. Why wait like SMS for the doors to close.

I think it was the Cheshire Cat in Alice In Wonderland who said, " "If you don't know where you're going, any road will do." I hope you choose the right road.

Today I want to share with you the essentials of an effective strategic plan. Please read on to find out more.

Essentials Of A Solid Strategic PLan

As Peter Drucker said "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Now more than ever, private schools need a strategic plan to maximize their strenths, minimize their weaknesses, and take advantage of their opportunties and trends.

What makes up a strategic plan? Here are the key elements:

• Mission Statement: Why your school exists

• Vision Statement: What you want the school to be in the future

• Goals, Objectives and Actions: How you will, step-by-step, achieve the vision

• Values: How you will treat each other and your constituents...alignment

If you want to visualize a strategic plan, it would look like this:

HEG's Planning Approach:
Our approach is based on years of experience. If done right,, it does not have to be frustrating, unproductive, costly, or divert the energies of your schools leadership. If it's facilitated properly, the process will stimulate support in your community and add value to your school's continued growth. The ultimate product of planning is your board's determination of the strategies that will guide decisions for your organization's future and the annual operational plan to achieve it - the blueprint for your school's future. The strategic planning process is sequential and raises a progression of questions that HEG uses to examine assumptions, gather and incorporate information about the present, and anticipate the world in which the school will be working in, and determine how you'll get there. It asks:

1. Where is your school now?
2. Where do we want your school to be? 
3. How does your school get there? 
4. How does your school measure your progress and know you've gotten there?

Our Planning Process:

A school is most effective when diverse departments are aligned by a common vision, mission, strategies, and goals. Simply working hard will not do it anymore. You want your school to move from being reactive (solving today's problems) to being proactive (eliminating problems in the future). However, many organizations react to unexpected changes rather than anticipate and plan for them. This is called "crisis management." Schools caught off guard spend a great deal of time and resources "playing catch up." They use up energy and resources coping with immediate problems with little energy left to anticipate and prepare for the future.

HEG's planning process provides a practical option to knee-jerk management. Our step-by-step process provides concrete objectives and deliverables that can be implemented and measured. Very simply, it will be a process by which your board can look into the future, identify a picture of the future based on current data, and control forces that affect you. This will allow your school to:

• Identify areas of operation needing attention and use it as a springboard to strengthen performance;
• Identify and reach consensus on critical issues (e.g., finance, enrollment, marketing, fundraising, HR, academic programs, student performance, facilities) before they become a crisis;
• Articulate a uniform, shared mission and vision, and provide a clearer focus for the school, producing efficiency and effectiveness, participation, and ownership by stakeholders;
• Allocate resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections;
• Build trust, respect, team-work, and communication amongst board members and Administration;
• Create a framework that guides decision making and ensures that members of the school are working towards the same goals, even if the environment around your school changes;
• Gain credibility amongst current and prospective donors and identify critical projects for investment;
• Ensure that board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide priorities;
• Monitor performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured.

What Our Approach Looks Like:

Our planning approach results in the development of a practical tool to assist your board with leading your school over the next five years. Our approach as a rule encompasses three site visits over a six to eight month period to determine where you are now, where you want to be, how to get there, and how you know you've gotten there. This is achieved through the following process:

1. Online Stakeholder Surveys with staff, board, and parents to gather data on school performance;
2. Onsite Focus Group sessions with parents, students, staff, faculty, board members, alumni, and/or other members of your community to identify areas needing improvement;
3. Two Facilitated On-Site Retreats with your Strategic Planning Committee to re/define core values, mission and vision statements, educational philosophy, and development of your goals, rationale, and objectives;
4. Detailed Action Plans that operationalize the implementation of your goals and objectives;
5. Follow-Up Community Online Survey to gather feedback on drafts of your strategic plan;
6. Support to implement your plan within your governance model and to operationalize with your Administration;

Links:

• Click here to read comments by our clients on our services as well as our planning process.
• Click here to review our strategic planning options (customized to your organization).
• Click here to download HEG's Eight-Step Strategic Planning Process.

Our approach results in the "compass" and "roadmap" to guide your school in the development of a measurable plan to focus priorities and maximize school performance.

Remember the adage...

A goal is just a dream with a deadline...
A goal will remain a dream unless you create and execute a plan of action to accomplish it...
Every goal that does  get accomplished
has a plan behind it.

Make it happen at your school. To find out more about how we can help provide you solutions, please email HEG at  to discuss your needs in more detail. 

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President

Halladay Education Group

P.S. Don't forget to go to our secure Online Store to invest in our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits.