Big Rapids Public Schools Launches Strategic Planning Process

The Board of Education and the Administration is launching a new initiative to guide Big Rapids Public Schools through a 3-5 year Strategic Plan.  The purpose of this initiative is to help us develop new goals and strategies for continuing to offer an excellent education for our students, while using scarce public education resources in the most effective and efficient way. 

Stakeholder feedback is an important part of the planning process.  Community members, parents, students, teachers and all district staff members will have the opportunity to give input on the strengths of the district, opportunities for improvement, barriers for implementation, and their vision for the district.

Big Rapids Public Schools will be hosting two community focus groups.  They will take place on April 23^rd, at 6:00 P.M., at Big Rapids High School, and on May 6^th, at 6:00 P.M., at Big Rapids Middle School.  You are also invited to fill out an online survey at:

www.brps.org/survey2015

Stakeholder input, along with essential district data, provides the basis for the district to choose approximately five priority goals to be implemented over the next three to five years.

The benefits of the strategic planning process are many.  Most notable are:

• It provides integrated, important input from community and staff
• It presents a succinct and graphic picture of the district’s current status
• It sets focused strategic goals that identify target areas to improve student achievement
• It clearly delineates the role of the Board of  Education and the superintendent/staff in strategic planning
• It uses data to set goals and make important decisions
• It helps identify areas to allocate increasingly scarce resources
• It aligns Board priorities with school improvement processes

Dave Murray, the Big Rapids Public Schools Board of Education President stated, “As school board members, we have to make the best decisions in these challenging, changing times.  It is essential that we use data and stakeholder input to make decisions and to set priorities for our district.”

Debbie Stair, Board Development Manager from the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) will work with Big Rapids Public Schools for the next three months to complete the strategic plan.  Stair said, “Big Rapids Public Schools and MASB have worked together to design a customized process that ensures broad stakeholder involvement and will result in an effective strategic plan implementation.”