Enhancing teaching and learning in the Magnolia School District is the goal of a 10-year strategic plan being designed by Dr. Roger Guevara and district officials.
Over time, the plan will gather input from the community so that parents, teachers and administrators “can see where things are working and areas that need to be improved,” Guevara said. “We want to be sure we can tap into their thoughts and ideas.”
Guevara, ERZ director and assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Southern Arkansas University, is a licensed strategic planner who believes “communities that fail to plan, plan to fail.” He called it “music to my ears” when he heard John Ward, new superintendent of Magnolia schools, speak about the need for a 10-year strategic plan.
“That was one thing that really impressed me about Mr. Ward,” Guevara said. “Most plans are between three and five years, but depending on the needs of the community it’s understandable there might be a 10-year plan. The board and he saw eye-to-eye on that; between them, it seems that strategic planning is a priority.”
He said he wanted to base the plan on standards in the state scholastic audit. “That’s the Bible on school improvement. Audits are based on three areas — academic performance, learning environment and efficiency. Those are the three major domains the state uses to gauge the performance of any district. We are wrapping (the plan) around school performance because that’s how we are measured. We want to be on the exemplary part of the audit.”
The plan will look at a number of aspects including the district’s vision and beliefs, facility analysis, demographics and budget forecasting. “If we have growing enrollment and the budget is looking favorable, that might indicate we would move in a certain direction,” he said. “If we have dropping enrollment and the budget is unfavorable, we’d move in another.”
He said everything in the plan “comes down to enhanced teaching and learning.” Data collected in the plan will help the district decide “how we can support our teachers, provide them with the resources they need and increase student achievement.”
Planning teams will work with the coordinator, Larry Dunn, on proposals to submit to the school board, which is under no obligation to accept any of its initiatives. “They can accept or reject,” Guevara said.
The teams will focus individually on academic performance, efficiency and learning environment.
The goal, Guevara said, is to help the district reach students
“Kids today are incredibly complex, they learn so much so fast, you have to educate them in context to everything that’s around them. If you are using a chalk and a chalkboard, you are completely missing the boat with these kids. You have to figure out ways to capture their imagination, engage them in what they would find a meaningful task, and provide them with resources to complete a project.”
“I commend the board for doing something like this,” Guevara said. “Not every community has done this, and I think it will serve Magnolia well. I want this community to achieve greatness. Let’s plan for excellence.”
He said it will take about a year and a half to fully develop the plan, which he and the district began working on in September.