Clear Creek ISD will begin work in earnest to implement its 2020-2025 District Strategic Plan after the Board of Trustees approved the plan during its regular meeting May 18.

The strategic plan helps CCISD navigate safety issues, personalize education and increase student performance, Superintendent Greg Smith said. The plan was initially brought to the board in March, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the vote. No changes have been made to the plan since then because the pandemic did not affect the district’s aspirations, said Steven Ebell, CCISD’s deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

“We may change the how, but we are not changing the aspirations and what the expectations are,” Ebell said at the May 18 meeting.

Trustee Jennifer Broddle said as parents, district employees and community members created and revised the strategic plan, the topic of non-traditional leaders came up repeatedly. She and Ebell agreed that the district’s desire to foster non-traditional leadership is even more important given the pandemic as the logistics of next school year remain uncertain.

The plan’s aspirational identity involves CCISD being a thought leader at the forefront of local education. As such, the plan is meant to build the systems necessary to achieve this, Ebell said. An implementation schedule, as well as information on how the success of each of the 19 individual action plans will be measured, will come at a later date, he said.

The initial plan was developed by a team of 30 people including parents, teachers, trustees and administrators, according to the agenda item information sheet presented at the meeting. Action planning committees met in January and February to further refine the strategic plan, and the work done with those committees resulted in many modifications to the version of the plan presented in May, Ebell said.

More than 150 action team members developed supporting action items for each of the plan’s five district strategies, per the information sheet. The strategies include making the district safe, providing inspirational learning experiences, cultivating social well-being, expanding the district’s capacity to accomplish goals, and ensuring the community takes ownership of the district’s mission.

“This plan documents the high levels of achievement CCISD aspires to for each student,” read the agenda item information sheet. “This strategic plan will serve as the foundation for all planning efforts within the district over the next five years.”

Trustee Scott Bowen asked Ebell and district officials about how administrators will assess the current state of each of the action items on the plan.

“What I see is missing here right now...is kind of the definition of our current state on each of these action items,” he said.

Since the plan is implemented over the course of four to five years, different parts of the plan will be executed at different times, Ebell said. An update on the current state of specific items will come as each part of the plan is put into action. Smith said the district may be short-staffed in terms of the people available to assess and evaluate the current state of district resources, but said the district will consider hiring these duties out as the budget permits.

Other business:

• The board also refined the fiscal year 2020-21 budget’s goals, assumptions and priorities after a consensus was not reached during a May 12 workshop. These goals, assumptions and priorities were assessed by the board to ensure they align with the district strategic plan, officials said. Amendments were made to the budget risks to indicate the negative effects of COVID-19 on revenue and expenditures, including the budgetary impacts of implementing social distancing measures if those measures are necessary for a successful reopening.
• The Safely Reopen CCISD Committee will meet May 19, and will continue meeting every Tuesday through the month of June. Meetings are not public, but minutes will be made available.
• Parents, students and staff will be sent a survey this week that will remain open for 14 days, Smith said during the meeting. The survey allows respondents to provide insight on how CCISD performed this spring with distance learning, what support is needed to help families in the event of a future disruption and perceptions about returning to school in August.Smith said the district will continue serving meals to students through the end of June. More than 130,000 meals have been served to date, he said.