Chapter 6

Planning

            The Kentucky Department of Education says this about planning: “The process of Improvement Planning in Kentucky is used as the means of determining how schools and districts will plan to ensure that students reach proficiency and beyond by 2014. The process focuses school and district improvement efforts on student needs by bringing together all stakeholders to plan for improvement, by focusing planning efforts on priority needs and closing achievement gaps between subgroups of students, by building upon school and district capacity for high quality planning, and by making connections between the funds that flow into the district and the priority needs in schools.”

            Planning is a prerequisite to policy and decision making. In public schools planning is a joint responsibility of the board of education, the school council, the professional staff, and the general public. Included in the term planning is the establishment of general objectives, goals or missions of an institution. Educational planning also consists of a continuous study of the school program and its needs, both present and future.

            The board of education and school councils have final responsibility for decision making; however, teachers, administrators, lay citizens, and board members can and should work together in much of the planning process. Interested citizens and civic groups will generally welcome the opportunity to participate in educational planning. Each will benefit from the contributions of the other, but the educational program will reap the greatest benefit.

            It is the responsibility of the professional staff to provide much of the information, collect the facts, and supply the educational expertise that goes into good planning.

            There are several levels and types of planning. The various levels and types follow, some of which has been adapted from Strategic Planning for America's Schools.

PROJECT PLANNING

            Project planning is the specific design of the tasks and resources needed to accomplish a specific project or purpose. The basic course of action is decided, and then detailed plans for necessary management activities are developed. Examples where project planning would be utilized include construction projects or any other stand-alone activity.

PROGRAM PLANNING

            The emphasis in program planning is on sustaining functions, relationships and results. Generally speaking, an idea is tested against reality, analyzed in regard to the current status of the surrounding conditions, justified by its beneficial outcomes, designed, implemented and evaluated. Program planning is a kind of evolutionary process. Examples include family resource center planning, community involvement, community education, ungraded primary programs ‑‑ anything that lends itself to being systematized or programmed.

COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING

            Schools in Kentucky are required to prepare and regularly update Comprehensive School Improvement Plans. Districts are required to prepare and regularly update Comprehensive District Improvement Plans. The process in both cases is used to determine how schools and districts will plan to ensure that students reach proficiency and beyond by 2014. Comprehensive Improvement Planning is more fully addressed in Chapter 19.

LONG‑RANGE PLANNING

            Long‑range planning may be done with any size unit. This type of planning seeks out "intersections" between the current state of business and the world either as it is or is projected to become, and then prescribes adjustments to that reality. Plans for the various divisions of a district are developed more or less in isolation of one another -- each pursuing its own reconciliation of what is with what will be. The assumption is that there is a "natural" agreement with the aspects of the district that are not included in the plan. This type of planning is typically done for curriculum, staff development, assessment, or any other single component of an educational district.

OPERATIONAL PLANNING

            Operational planning is the means by which an organization maintains itself from day to day. It is of short term, deals with specific parts of the organization and is budget driven. It is how the organization operates. Operational planning can be made in a strategic context. 

SCHOOL-BASED PLANNING

            State law requires the local board to adopt a policy to implement school-based decision making that addresses school improvement plans, including the form and function of strategic planning and its relationship to district planning.

            The Kentucky Education Reform Act emphasizes the school as the fundamental unit of change. This emphasis is based on the premise that reform will be most meaningful when those affected by the decisions, teachers and parents, make the decisions.  However, local boards are not just interested in effective schools, they also are interested in effective school districts and must define the parameters that complement the district.  They must assure that equal opportunities for students are available in all schools.

            The board should require that each school develop improvement plans and annual progress updates for presentation to be board. School improvement plans should take into consideration the district’s long-term direction. If site plans are developed without a district plan, schools may become fragmented. State law allows the board to adopt a policy requiring these annual updates, which describe the school’s progress in meeting the educational goals outlined in KRS 158.6451 and the district goals established by the board.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

            Strategic planning is the means by which an organization constantly recreates itself to achieve common purpose. Strategic planning is done to transform the organization, not to maintain day to day operations. Implicit in this definition is the concentration of all efforts, resources, activities, and energies toward a single mission. Strategic planning, unlike other types of planning, changes the locus of control. It allows the community to see what it wants the district to be. Strategic planning assumes that the locus of control is inside, that excellence cannot be realized through state statutes and regulations. Strategic planning involves staff, parents and community leaders, and is a discipline where beliefs are formulated, mission is determined, objectives are set, strategies are developed, and action plans to accomplish the strategies are written. Taken together, the components of a strategic plan tell who the organization is, what it is up to, and how it is going to accomplish its objective.

            Doug Eadie (author of Five Habits of High Impact Boards), suggests that board teams would do well to approach all of their planning through the idea of maintaining a “strategic change portfolio.”  This is a process that more easily captures the constantly changing needs that confront school districts and school boards of today.

            A board would, through regular review and continual focus on improvement:

1. Review the vision that has been established relative to the district (“where we need to be”).
2. Review the data and reports that show where the district is currently (“where we are today”).
3. Discuss, brainstorm, and receive input about ongoing issues that impact progress toward improved student achievement and strong district governance (“what we need to be doing”)
4. Decide upon a process that captures those issues and gives form to a plan that addresses them (“change initiatives” – to be stored in the “strategic change portfolio” that is regularly updated and reviewed by the board team.)
5. Implement those initiatives and processes that the board team feels will help advance the district toward the vision that has been established.

            Eadie strongly recommends that board teams use committees to help in the work of doing numbers 3 and 4 above.  The committees would consist of citizens, district personnel, students, and at least one board member who would research the issue and formulate a recommended plan of action to be presented to the board. Boards that want to pursue this possibility further may contact KSBA for some best practices and processes that would guide their work. 

            Step number 3 is something that should constantly be occurring via the board agenda, the annual board calendar, and the opportunities for dialogue with others. KSBA has established some recommended best practices for making use of each of these specific tools. Further, the board governance team should constantly be evaluating the possible need for changes to the current system. By maintaining a strategic change portfolio (or a “folder” of issues to be addressed immediately on behalf of students and their achievement), a board team can constantly develop issues, and make plans or receive recommendations for addressing those issues. If the recommendations do not require additional funding, they could be put into place immediately upon adoption by the board team. If the recommendations will require funding beyond that which exists in the current budget, they should be included in planning for the board’s next budget cycle.   

            Here is an example: Suppose that midway through the budget cycle, the board team through conversations with school councils realizes that the schools are desperately in need of a way to better assess children’s learning needs diagnostically so that instruction can be readily changed to meet the students’ needs. The board appoints a committee to study this issue, research best practices, and develop a sound recommendation that can be brought before the board for consideration. The committee would consist of district personnel (to include teachers, principals), one board member, citizens (parents), and other community members.  The committee is presented with a specific charge from the board and/or superintendent (“develop a sound recommendation that will provide a means for teachers to assess diagnostically children’s learning needs. . .”), given a timeline for doing the work, and it then begins the work. The committee then presents the work to the board with specific recommendations for action.  If the recommendation is sound and requires no additional funds, the board can adopt it immediately, with specific plans for progress reports and tangible ways to measure impact. If the recommendation will require funding beyond that available in the current budget, the issue could be added to a list of needs to be reviewed during the upcoming budget cycle.

QUESTIONS

v     Who is responsible for planning?

Everyone. However, as the chief executive of the board, the superintendent is responsible for seeing that planning is carried out. Boards that want to initiate planning should discuss it with the superintendent.

v     The different types of planning are confusing. What types of planning should the district be involved in?

The state department of education recommends using comprehensive improvement planning to bring about improvements; a board can ask its superintendent to investigate what other types of planning it should have.

v     Who should be involved in the district’s planning process?

Usually, the planning team includes the superintendent, school board members, central office administrators, building administrators, teachers, students, parents and community representatives.

v     Doesn’t this planning team take decision-making authority away from the board after the plan is in place?

No. A plan is simply a plan. It does not bind the board or the superintendent in the decision-making process. However, the plan should guide the board team in decision-making.

v     How long does it take to develop a plan?

Generally, it takes six months to a year to develop a properly done strategic plan.

v     Do school-based comprehensive improvement plans have to contribute to the objectives and strategies in the district comprehensive improvement plan?

The board cannot control the content of the plan of school councils. However, board policy should address the form and function of the school plan and its relationship to the district plan.

v     Can the board require a school council to have a school improvement plan? Can it require the plan to be presented to the board for approval?

The board can require the plan and its presentation to the board, but the board’s approval or adoption is not required.

v     If a council is not meeting the goals of KRS 158.6451 and/or district goals established by the board, what can the board do?

The board is limited to publicly disclosing this fact. It has no authority to either approve or disapprove the school’s progress.

Some controlling statutes and regulations for this chapter: KRS 160.340; KRS 160.345; KRS 158:6451

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© 2004 Kentucky School Boards Association.

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