RRPS adopts strategic plan to shape decisions for 5 years

Administration to gather data to set baselines for goal-setting

Rio Rancho Public Schools has adopted a new strategic plan that will guide the district until 2021.

Board of Education members praised the document and gave it unanimous support in a 4-0 vote on Monday.

“This will be a framework going into the future,” board president Don J. Schlichte said.

The plan took a year to develop, and included input from administrators, teachers, staff and board members. In January, the district began holding special monthly work sessions to focus on its development.

“I think the importance of this is that it is well thought out, many stakeholders have been a part of it, and it has been kept simple,” said Gary Tripp, RRPS strategic planning and engagement officer. “We are looking at something we have created that we can move the district forward to a new, higher level.”

The strategic plan centers on four broad pillars that express district priorities and overall philosophy.

Team: Commit to a culture of fairness to each other, collaboration and service above self.

Community: Engage with the community and business leaders to further the district’s vision and future success.

Student Success: Maintain commitment to inclusion, innovation and diversity of program offerings for student achievement.

Process and Resource: Manage the district for increased communication, efficiency through fact-based decision-making, process management and planning.

Each pillar comes with one or two “SMART Goals” designed to measure progress and impact. For instance, the district aims to “develop marketing/outreach initiatives for hiring staff in all positions by 2021” to improve the team pillar.

The second part of the plan is a graduate

profile that lays out hopes for all students who come through Rio Rancho schools: academic knowledge, 21stcentury skills, civic engagement and creative thinking.

This fall, RRPS will distribute copies of the plan to all staff and begin collecting data to create a baseline for each of the SMART Goals. The board will hear progress reports four times throughout the 2016-17 school year.

District spokeswoman Beth Pendergrass stressed that the strategic plan won’t just “sit on the shelf.”

“It is something that will be front and center, and used in our decision-making,” she said.