In an effort to compile data and input from the community, parents, and students, District 205 held community engagement forums throughout the first half of the school year.
Based on those forums, Superintendent John Asplund and the district compiled over 1200 data points to consider. Implementing the data and goals will be a multi-year process – and will be addressed through 205 school board and committee meetings. The set of data points collected are varied and diverse, but according to Asplund, three main points have emerged. The first is making sure students graduate with tangible skills – not just preparing them to get in to college or in to the workforce, but making sure they succeed. The second main point was making sure 205 schools have the tools, class space, and facilities to teach those tangible skills. “The curriculum committee of the board of education will create some goals and we’ll work with the staff, we’ll work with the community, we’ll work with the students to try to (implement) those goals as we go forward,” Asplund said. “Then we will communicate those goals- that’s another way we’re going to try to make people understand: we’re going to make each of those priority areas agenda items. It’s not like you can ignore it. It’s forcing us to make sure we go in the direction we said we wanted to go.” The third area was transparency – communication and sharing information is done in many ways, and District 205 plans to embrace that more and more. Asplund says implementing priority points will begin in the coming months and years with future engagement forums held every five to six years.
