The Limestone County School Board set goals for themselves in their new 5-year plan.

“The main point of the strategic plan is to make sure that we’re providing our students with numerous opportunities, providing them with a great education here in Limestone County,” Superintendent Randy Shearouse said. “And then, to also make sure that we keep up with our facility needs as we grow as a district to make sure we have places for all these kids to attend.”

The plan focuses on five strategic areas for the board and central office to focus on for 2023-2028: student support and achievement, stakeholder engagement and communication, resources and operational effectiveness, quality staff and professional development, and governance.

“I think the strategic plan will help us on down the line. You think about five years but maybe even beyond that guide us in the decision making process,” Shearouse said. “Then, I think you’ll see things improve in the district academically. But, I also think that we covered safety a lot in this plan as well … just making sure that we’re on the cutting edge as far as safety for our students.”

After meetings at schools in each part of the district and talks with committees made up of parents, teachers and students, the Limestone County School Board voted in favor of the plan at a meeting on May 9.

The News Courier ran a story introducing the strategic plan called “Breaking down the Limestone County Schools Strategic Plan” in the May 27 edition. This focused on explaining the vision and mission of the district, along with the addressing the first strategic area of student support and achievement. Stories in the May 31, June 1 and June 3 editions explained the second, third and fourth areas of the plan.

The fifth and final strategic area is “governance,” which includes seven main goals that can be broken down into two main ideas: training and planning and policy.

Training

The board’s governance section of the plan aims to make sure they are up to date with state training in addition to following through on professional development for countywide leadership.

There are multiple actions and performance measures listed to track this.

To keep up to date on state training the board plans to subscribe to the Alabama Association of School Boards Policy Pipeline, which is a publication “that makes policy recommendations to our subscribers based on the past year’s new laws, regulations, cases or best practices.”

The annual cost is $850 to be a subscriber. The Alabama Association of School Boards website says the publication puts out updates and draft policies that can be locally adapted. “Each edition is written by policy experts who understand Alabama education law and school boards,” according to the website.

The governance goals want to ensure that, aside from keeping the board itself up to date and and informed, other leaders “remain current and knowledgeable on state and federal laws, regulations and policies that affect school programs, services, and resources for children and families.”

They can do this by participating in Policy Pipeline webinars and attending professional development sessions by the district. The board will continue to be involved with the School Superintendent Association by attending District 8 Superintendent meetings, conferences and legislative assignment meetings.

“Participating in required and voluntary training helps the board and superintendent make informed decisions about the future of the district,” Shearouse said.

School and board leadership will participate in various meetings and conference trainings throughout the year and to keep track of this effort they will document their participation for those required trainings.

Planning and policy

There are multiple ways the board plans to plan and review policy in the next five years.

The first goal is for the governance team to continue long-range planning for the district by holding bi-annual reviews of the strategic plan.

The district will also work to maintain and update board policies as needed to reflect current laws and regulations. To do this, staff will review policies and procedures regularly.

The strategic plan says the board will maintain its policies to ensure its own effectiveness and efficiency. They will continue to use the Simbli board meeting management software.

“The BOE develops policies which drive the overall operations of the school district, along wiht making critical decisions in regard to funding,” Shearouse said.

And, finally, the last goal is for the governance team and staff to supervise the staff evaluation process and improve professional practice ensuring evaluations are on an annual basis.

The News Courier plans to do more stories about some of the specifics of the plan like transportation and communication among others. If you have any questions about the strategic plan, please reach out to nicolle@athensnews- courier.com.