The Détente

Last night, I attended an education meeting that was very different.  It was a very odd group of folks getting together in one room to talk about things that affect all Delaware schools.  It was a mixture of people who represented two different sides of public education.

Capital School District’s 5 Year Strategic Planning Kicks Off At Board Meeting Tonight

At their January meeting, the Capital School District Board of Education passed a Strategic Planning initiative for the district.  Tonight, the board discussed the plan with their consultant for the project.  The Board will be present during the planning stages of the five-year plan as approved by the board members tonight.  The five-year plan will deal with improving the district with topics like finances, behavior issues in schools, and to give the district a clear direction going forward.  The district had a 5 year plan in place from 2009-2014, but with former Superintendent Dr. Michael Thomas retiring, the board felt it was crucial to begin this process with a new Superintendent.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Shelton, new to Capital School District this year, has been adamant about getting the community involved in this projct.  On January 6th, David Paulk with The Dover Post wrote an article about the plan.

As a new superintendent it’s my job to make sure we have a direction going forward,” Shelton said.  “But it takes a lot of input to get a sense of what the community is going to support.

“I don’t want our direction moving forward to be Dan Shelton’s direction. It needs to be the community’s direction” he said. “We’re going to use our teachers, our administrators, and members of the community who want to volunteer for different portions of this plan.”

Forums will take place in March with Capital educators and members of the community.  An “official” press release will go out tomorrow.  For now, take a look at the initial planning stages for Capital’s 5 Year Strategic Planning: