BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD BEGINS DISTRICT VISION PLANNING PROCESS
The Brenham School Board took initial steps Monday in preparation for a new strategic planning process.
Trustees considered a series of dates in the fall to hold board workshops to begin district vision planning. Superintendent Dr. Tylor Chaplin said he wants to try to revisit the district’s mission, vision and beliefs in order to understand and interpret them correctly or potentially recreate them.
Dr. Chaplin said feedback from the public will be very important during the planning process.
According to Dr. Chaplin, the district has contracted with Moak, Casey and Associates, an educational consultant out of Austin, to help with this process. He said the process will likely involve three meetings, but could have more if necessary. Each of these meetings could take up to three or four hours.
The first meeting will comprise of a “team of eight,” including trustees and Dr. Chaplin, to perform a spot analysis of where the district currently stands and a board trust survey to get them all on the same page.
The second meeting will have the team of eight meeting with a strategic planning team, a group of roughly 25 to 30 district and campus leaders and other community representatives. The purpose of the second meeting is to come out with about six statements on what the district believes in different lenses, whether that be teachers, students, the community, or other topics.
Dr. Chaplin said it is critical that the strategic planning team be representative of the entire community in order to accurately form the district’s beliefs.
The third and likely final meeting would have the team of eight formulating the district’s vision and mission statements after reviewing feedback from the strategic planning team.
Dates suggested to hold these meetings included November 2nd, 5th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 17th, and 19th. Dr. Chaplin said district administrators would coordinate with trustees today (Tuesday) to see which three dates would work best for them. Dr. Chaplin said once these meetings have wrapped up, he will meet with his administrative team in December to begin formulating ideas for goals, which would be presented to the board in January.
Board Secretary Susan Jenkins said she believes the last time the district went through this process was the 2013-14 school year.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Business and Finance Director Kim Weatherby announced that the district would save less than expected on its refinancing of $26.6 million in 2020 unlimited tax refunding bonds. She said the district’s financial advisor, Steve Perry, was able to secure a gross savings of $5.1 million for the local taxpayers, less than the anticipated $7 million in savings. She said there were multiple reasons for the drop in savings, including continued economic uncertainty due to COVID-19, lack of progress on additional stimulus funding, the upcoming election, and other school districts selling bonds shortly before Brenham ISD’s went to market.
Dr. Chaplin also announced that the asynchronous learning plan recently submitted to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) by the district was approved last week.
The board also:
- Discussed Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment data.
- Held a public hearing on the district’s annual “FIRST” financial accountability rating.
- Heard the annual bilingual and ESL evaluation for the 2019-20 school year.
- Went over monthly informational reports.
- Met in executive session to review the district’s security audit.