Strategic Plan
Inspiring All to Grow and Thrive . . .Take a few minutes to watch this video explaining the process Chagrin Falls Schools took to create our new Strategic Plan.
September 2024
We invite all teachers, staff, parents, alumni, and community members to join us on September 25, 2024 for a roundtable conversation focused on Gurney and our strategic goals: High-Quality Learning Experiences, Student and Staff Wellbeing, and Strategic Resourcing. This discussion will allow participants to engage in meaningful conversations about where we are now and our desired future, similar to those held during our strategic planning process. To ensure a high quality experience for all stakeholders, we ask that you sign-up in advance. Each session is limited to 50 participants.
Gurney Roundtables: September 25, 2024
9:30am - 11:00am - PAC Lobby
4:00pm - 5:30pm - High School Commons
7:00pm - 8:30pm - High School Commons
May 2023 - New Strategic Plan Adopted
At the May 31st, 2023 Board of Education Meeting, the Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools unveiled the district's new strategic plan. The presentation, as well as a one page overview, can be found on the right side of this page.
During the meeting, each of the three inquiry teams presented their briefing reports. The briefing reports compromise over eight months of in-depth work by staff, students, parents, and community members. The briefing reports were used to create the recommendations the District will use moving forward.
The process also yielded organizational drivers and a directional system for the District. These will help guide Chagrin Falls Schools in the decision making process.
Fall 2022 - Design
The District is finalizing the “Discover” phase of the strategic planning process with its final Community Engagement Roundtable on September 14 as well as the launching of the Strategic Coordination Team (SCT) and Inquiry Teams.
Strategic Coordination Team
The Strategic Coordination Team is the oversight team that meets at least 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, Denise Snowden, from Coach to Lead. Team members consist of the superintendent, treasurer, District and building administrators, two Board members, and community leaders from each of the three Inquiry Teams. This team will provide our school community a monthly update of the inquiry teams’ progress as we begin to work through the “Design” stage this fall.
Inquiry Teams
The “Design” stage of the process is where we put the three Inquiry Teams in action. In order for the teams to remain small enough to be functional, we were limited to 16 spots for each team; two Chagrin administrators and one school community member will lead each team.
Additionally each team consists of five to six parents/guardians/community members, three students, three to four staff members and one Board member. Interested candidates submitted an application which was reviewed by members of the Strategic Coordination Team. We had 63 applications from parents alone! We were encouraged to see such significant interest and grateful that so many individuals were willing to share their expertise.
The three Inquiry Teams (aligned to each strategic priority area - High-Quality Learning, Student and Staff Well-Being, and Strategic Resourcing) will meet at least monthly and are tasked with spearheading the work to produce well-supported strategy recommendations in the form of a briefing paper to the Strategic Coordination Team. The initial work of these teams is informed by the community questionnaire responses, community roundtables, and other existing relevant qualitative and quantitative data. Members of the Inquiry Teams will engage stakeholders (focus groups) and extend their understanding of research, best practices, and future fluencies that inform their strategic priority area. Denise Snowden will also be the external facilitator responsible for supporting the work of these teams.
Fall 2022 - DESIGN
Spring/Summer 2022 - DISCOVER
Phase one of our strategic planning was to hold Community Engagement Roundtables to help guide our process. This happened in May 2022.
Community Engagement Roundtables were opportunities for stakeholders (staff, students, parents, alumni, and community) to come together and listen and learn from each other. There were approximately 200 people that participated.
This summer, strategic coordination and inquiry teams have been launched.
Chagrin Falls Schools Holds District Leadership Team Training on August 2, 2022
As part of Chagrin Falls Schools’ strategic planning, a District Leadership Team (DLT) has been established to develop goals and to design, implement, support and communicate the work necessary for meeting those goals. They will be meeting monthly.
The team consists of 38 staff members and is led by Denise Snowden, from Coach to Lead, who is facilitating the roundtables and meetings and assisting the District with the creation of the plan.
On August 2, the DLT met to plan for the Convocation meeting (first day for staff) on August 15. They decided areas of priority should include High-Quality Learning Experiences; Student and Staff Well-Being; and Strategic Resourcing. They also refined the mission, vision, beliefs and learning competencies for the District and discussed student achievement and data-driven goals.
At the September meeting, the group will review achievement data and refine District goals.
