There are not many places in the world where you can be shut down because of a storm one week and the next week be enjoying beautiful spring-like weather.
In this column, I want to focus on the efforts that the Bemidji Area School's Board of Education is taking to plan for the future.
One of the most important tasks in front of any school board is to set a vision and direction for district leadership to carry out. This vision is not only focused on where we want to be as a district in terms of education, technology, finances, facilities and transportation but also on what the district’s impact on the community is desired to be.
One of the first conversations that the school board engaged me in after my hire was strategic vision and planning. I asked the school board to move this process to the spring so that I could have an opportunity to attain better situational awareness and develop relationships before taking on this very important task.
The board graciously allowed me the time to attain this situational awareness of the district before embarking on the planning process, which is why we are starting this process this spring.
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We have engaged the Minnesota School Board Association to help us with the process of strategic planning that takes into account feedback from parents, community members, staff and other stakeholders. There will be opportunities to help with this process along the way and I am hoping that those of you that have an interest in this process will be watching for these opportunities in the not-too-distant future.
As we look to articulate the vision of Bemidji Area Schools, we must also be cognizant of the planning that needs to go into our finances, facilities, transportation, technology and educational plan. These items need to not only be well planned, but they also must be congruent with each other.
You cannot have a technology plan that is not aligned with your educational plan nor can you have a transportation plan that is out of sync with your financial plan. This planning needs to be well thought out, strategic and aligned to create the greatest impact for our community.
Once we have the input from this spring's strategic planning sessions, district leadership will work to put action plans together for the implementation and carrying out of these strategic directions this summer. We hope to have this full strategic plan in front of the school board for approval in the fall.
After the plan is approved, we also must be aware of the long-term nature of the implementation of this plan. It is easy to articulate our vision for the future. It is somewhat more difficult to plan out the steps to accomplish this vision. It is extremely difficult to have the grit, discipline and focus to actually accomplish the vision.
Over the next few years, we will have to demonstrate an extremely disciplined approach to carry out the vision that will be set over the next few months. I am excited to begin this journey with you and it is my hope that together we will go far. If you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free to reach out to me.
Jeremy Olson is the superintendent of Bemidji Area Schools. He can be reached at (218) 407-9645 or dr_jeremy_olson@isd31.net.
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