The District is finalizing the “Discover” phase of the strategic planning process and launching the Strategic Coordination Team (SCT) and Inquiry Teams.  The Strategic Coordinate Team is the oversight team that meets monthly to guide and facilitate the work and to learn together.  The team provides coherence across Inquiry Teams and disseminates updates to internal and external stakeholders. The team leads the revisions to the essential organizational drivers such as the mission, vision, values, beliefs and learner competencies.  Most importantly, this team is responsible for finalizing the strategic plan and bringing it to the Board of Education for adoption.  

The team is led by external facilitator, Dr. Denise Snowden, from Coach to Lead. Team members consist of the superintendent, treasurer, District and building administrators, two Board members, and community representatives from each of the three Inquiry Teams.  This team will provide our school community a monthly update of the strategic planning process.

In the spirit of our District theme, “This is Chagrin, Write the Story,” we asked members of the SCT to write the community update in a variety of ways to model how everyone can be part of the initiative and write stories to share their experiences. This will also give members of our school community to meet and connect with our team members.

Thank you for partnering with us as both an author and reader in the writing of the story of Chagrin Falls Schools!

Kindest Regards, 

Jennifer Penczarski, Ed.D.
Superintendent

By Mike Janatovich, Principal, Chagrin Falls High School

By Laila Discenza, Principal, Chagrin Falls Middle School

Data suggests that images are more likely to be remembered than words because our brains dually encode images, but encode words only once. Pictures can convey information even more efficiently than words. Art connects us to our past and can remind us of people, places, feelings, and stories. Narrative art tells a story. 

What does CFEVS value? What guides us?  What do we aspire for our students? 

In January, as a Strategic Coordination Team, we participated in smaller book studies to help us think deeply about the above questions. There were definitely some themes that emerged and these themes were then shared with a few Chagrin Falls Middle School students who wrote the story through their expressive drawings.

Our students aspire to explore, discover their passions and engage in multiple authentic experiences. How do we prioritize this philosophy within a Chagrin mission?  How do we pursue the goal to “realize their potential” while honoring and realizing who they are and what they need throughout their learning journey?

By Amanda

The Strategic Coordination Team began the December meeting with an activity that had members reflect on individual strengths through the Enneagram test and how we can collectively utilize our differences as we work collaboratively to develop a vision for our students’ future and identify the strategies that will get us there. 

This was followed by small group discussions surrounding the TED Talk, Embracing a Different Way by Devin Vodika. The group discussion led me to think about the institution of education and the scene from I Love Lucy in the chocolate factory popped into my mind. Everything starts off fine; Lucy and Ethel are told what to do and are expected to apply those information moments later. The belt starts to speed up, and the pace and the strategies they were using no longer resulted in success. Within the institution of education, there are many times in which the conveyor belt moves fast, and we, like Lucy and Ethel, scramble to meet the individual needs of each student. What if Lucy and Ethel had a button to stop the conveyor belt when needed? What if they had been in control of the speed of the belt to slow down or ramp up? What if they had time to prepare in advance how to use their individual strengths to accomplish the goal together? While the scene likely wouldn’t have been as funny, all of those chocolates would have been wrapped and ready to ship out at the pace they could handle. It brings us back to these wonderings, “What if we embrace our differences and seek to provide a wide range of opportunities and pathways to meet the goal? What is stopping us from providing personalized pathways to graduation for students? How can we genuinely engage students in their learning and put them in control of the conveyor belt?” 

Lastly, we received updates from each of the three inquiry teams.  Team leaders provided some of the emerging themes from their work and had genuine and honest dialogue surrounding the challenges we as a district have experienced in the past.

By Laura Hui

What If?

What if we could capture the Chagrin Falls School District's essence in one word,

What word would we choose? Opportunity? Growth? Connection? Optimism? 

What if we don't know exactly what our students' future will look like,

And therefore we must plan for multiple futures simultaneously? Will that foster innovation?

What if our schools focus on the impact of education on our children, 

And the future impact our children will have on their family, community, and society?

What if we could design a curriculum that helps our students develop their interests and passions,

While also closing gaps in potential and achievement? 

What if we model the kind of determination and resilience that we want our students to develop,

And we are not afraid of making mistakes, but only of not providing a high quality learning experience?

What if we also design opportunities for our students to fail so that they are not afraid to pivot,

And in doing so, will teach our students to embrace both the known and unknown?

What if the community input given through questionnaires and roundtable discussions can act as a guide,

And we can collectively develop a vision of what are the qualities of a, "Good Chagrin Human?"

And what if our schools can provide a place where our students can Be, Belong and Become?

What if?

Strategic Coordination Team Update… A limerick in three parts

There once was a team from Chagrin
Who kicked it off a chatting about passions
They connected and talked
Chatted and walked
And that’s how a meeting should begin

Our members would sit patiently and wait
To hear the inquiry teams update
Diverse groups
Focus on work
So many great ideas to debate

Banning average came out in a TED Talk
Profiles are jagged which rawks!
Ideas take shape
Sometimes we use tape
Cause we can’t write on the walls in chalk!

Translation:

The Strategic Coordination Team began the October meeting with an activity that encouraged us to look at what we were passionate about when it came to strategic planning so that we could identify our biases. This was followed by updates from each of the three inquiry teams.  Team leaders provided insight into the work, the groups, and the ideas that have come from the initial brainstorming conversations. Next, the entire team watched a portion of a TED Talk from Todd Rose on the myth of average to challenge our thinking about what our students need form us to be successful for their futures. We also looked at the idea that everyone’s profile of skills forms a jagged line and doesn’t need to be identical. We wrapped up the meeting by thinking like a researcher and coding some of the data we have gathered from the community sessions. 

A story of the September 22, 2022, Strategic Planning Committee...captured by listening to a room full of different and similar songs playing at the same time, with this Tiger Word Cloud reflecting both the consonance and dissonance of these lyrics and sounds...

The Three Great Ideas
By: Lindsey Self

Once upon a time, there lived a group of townspeople who wanted to improve their community. They were teachers, administrators, parents, and neighbors. One day (August 30, 2022), the town crier said, “let’s meet and talk about strategic planning for our school,” and the townspeople gathered at the village schoolhouse. The first townsperson exclaimed, “what’s important for our school is high-quality learning!” The second townsperson cried, “what’s more important for our school is student and staff well-being!” The third townsperson declared, “what’s most important for our school is strategic resourcing!” After careful consideration, the townspeople all agreed – no one aspect of strategic planning was superior, and all deserved prudent thought and exploration. The townspeople spent the rest of the afternoon jubilantly discussing a community engagement roundtable (scheduled for September 14, 2022), preparing for the unveiling of inquiry teams for each focus area, and discovering data sources for crucial information related to each focus area. And they all lived happily ever after (until the next meeting)!

Lindsey Self is a member of the Strategic Coordination Team and the Strategic Resourcing Inquiry Team Lead Coach. Lindsey is an employment trial attorney and spent almost a decade in human resources prior to practicing law. She is an elected member of The Cleveland Employment American Inn of Court, an appointed member of the South Russell Village Board of Zoning Appeals, and sits on several boards within the District. Lindsey lives in South Russell with her husband, Brian, and their two children, Vivian (3rd grade) and Connor (1st grade).