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If it ain't broke,
break it, then fix it. Otherwise you may be destined to address tomorrow's
problems with yesterday's solutions - Clark Crouch
Another summer has come and gone.
How do they go by so fast? Ahh, the century old quandry of educators,
students, and parents. I hope though that you've come back fully recharged
and ready for another memorable school year.
I shared both the quote and images to  emphasize how critical proactive long-term
strategic planning, action planning, and implementation and monitoring
are to the short- and long-term success of a private school. Many schools
make the mistake of developing their plan in isolation without any input from
their stakeholders nor reflect on trends and data related their school's
performance. Their leadership creates a plan in isolation that does not
measurably lay-out a plan for improvement nor engage their community in the
process, product, implementation, or buy-in. It just becomes another of those
plans from the top that gathers dust. Just another one of those plans brought
down from the top of the mountain.
Furthermore, many schools do not create a supporting annual action plan and
operation plan in unison with the goals and objectives developed in the plan
to prioritize and guide the implementation and monitoring by board committees
and the senior administrations yearly actions. Today's eNewsletter reflects
on other elements to support the development and implementation of an
effective strategic plan for your school.
To your success,
Douglas Halladay
President
Halladay Education Group
4316 Arthur Drive, Delta, BC,
Canada, V4K 2W8
P.S. Don't forget to go to our
secure Online Store to invest in
our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits. They're affordable and
practical.
Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is
simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.
The purpose of a strategic plan is to lay out a concise and practical road
map to achieve your school's mission and vision -- moving away from being
"reactive" -- solving today's problems -- towards being
"proactive" - eliminating problems in the future and taking
advantage of opportunities now.
Your plan should provide a framework that enables your school to focus and
coordinate your resources, work towards common goals, assess and adjust as
you move forward, and focus your board's priorities, guide your staff, and
inspire your community. The planning process addresses a series of questions
that examines assumptions, incorporates information about the present, and
anticipates the world in which the school will be working in, determines how
you will get there, and allows you to measure and adjust asyou attain your
vision.
Linking To Effective Governance
A school is most effective when
your resources are aligned top-to-bottom by a common vision, mission,
strategies, goals, and action plans. An effective planning approach should be
seamless and provide practical objectives and deliverables that can be
implemented and measured to improve the performance of your school, moving
you from good to great. It should allow your board to layout the strategic
direction of the school and monitor the progress of your plan against school
performance, as well as linking your governance model and oversight to your
senior administration annual operational plan. This allows your school to
- Identify areas
of operation needing consideration now and using it as a springboard to
strengthen performance in the future;
- Identify and
reach consensus on issues before they become a crisis (e.g., finance,
funding, enrollment, marketing, HR, academic programs, student
performance, facilities, educational program, governance);
- Articulate a
uniform, shared vision, providing a clearer focus, producing efficiency,
participation, and ownership by your stakeholders;
- Allocate
resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections;
- Build trust,
respect, team-work, and communication amongst all stakeholders;
- Create a
framework to guide decision making and ensure that members are working
towards the same goals, even if the environment around the school
changes;
- Gain
credibility and identify critical projects to focus your resources;
- Inspire your
community to invest in your goals through focused fundraising campaigns;
- Ensure that
board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide
priorities within their committee structure; and
- Monitor
performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured
within your board and senior administration.
The diagram below illustrates
how the pieces come together for your board to develop, implement, and
monitor your school's plan. You can see that your five-year planing document
should be used annually by your board to determine your yearly priorities and
then have your senior administration break-down how they plan to measurably
implement the priorities, encompassed within their own evaluation process.
Your board committees would then monitor the implementation and report back
to the board any action items. This puts all key players on the same
page.
HEG's Planning Approach
HEG's planning approach
supports your board and senior administration in the development and
implementation of your plan. Our approach typically encompasses a progression
of stages over a five to seven month time frame with the development of your
strategic plan and action plan for implementation in the coming school year.
This is achieved through the following steps that are customized for your
school:
Provided is a link to a recent strategic plan HEG developed.
Click on the link to open a downloadable copy of their strategic plan for Forest Lake Education Center Strategic  Plan. HEG's
President has been involved in the development of a variety of strategic
plans for a number of schools types (International, US, Canadian, IBO,
Faith-Based, Public) globally and can lead the development of your school's
strategic plan this coming school year..
Next Step
If you would like to find out more about how we could help
your board develop your school's strategic plan or advise on the review and
implementation of your current plan, please contact HEG to find out more by
sending an email to info@halladayeducationgroup.com
or calling directly at +1-604-868-0002.
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