LANSDALE- The North Penn School District Board of School Directors had a work session meeting Tuesday evening where they discussed the steps in moving forward with North Penn’s next strategic plan. The Board had generated a list of ideas and actions they would like to see implemented in the district during a previous work session meeting, and Tuesday night the Board discussed how they would proceed with sorting, prioritizing, and voting on the various actions.

Led by Board Director Mark Warren, the creation of North Penn’s three-year strategic plan is targeted to be delivered for the Board to inform by mid-July. At the work session meeting, the Board came to a consensus on grouping the items under six categories: facilities, district management, instruction, technology, student supports, and equity and access. In addition, the Board will be using Trello, a project management tool, to collaborate and develop the strategic plan along with district administration.

“It’s important to administration that [the Board] makes informed decisions so we want to be able to help [the Board] understand these items and see where we are and where we’re headed,” commented Superintendent Dr. Curt Dietrich.

There was discussion about which items were actionable and which items were more vague and needed to be broken down into specific actions. The Board engaged in discussion concerning how the items would be sorted, who would sort them, updates from the administration about each item, etc.

“There are larger items, ideas on the list. Is the item as written down actionable? And if not, you need to break it down into parts. Full day kindergarten is a perfect example. Full day kindergarten is not actionable. I need to figure out the parts that come with it,” explained Warren.

After discussing and sharing different ideas for the process of developing the strategic plan, the Board came to a final consensus on the next steps for the plan. Moving forward, Dr. Dietrich and Dr. Diane Holben will sort the actionable and non-actionable items within each of the six categories. The actionable items will be held in a reserve while the non-actionable items will be placed in Trello for discussion. At the next action meeting, Thursday, April 19th, the Board will discuss the non-actionable items and the current state of the items in the district. For instance, whether or not the district is currently working on advancing those actions. Then, there will be more discussion about the actual meaning of the non-actionable items to inform voting, and finally, voting will take place for the non-actionable items.

The next North Penn School District Board of School Directors meeting will be an action meeting on Thursday, April 19th at 7:30 PM at the Educational Services Center.