WOOLWICH TWP. — The Kingsway Regional School District announced that it will engage in a three-year strategic planning initiative, entitled Vision 2019, that will include several open meetings for anyone in the community to participate in discussions about the district’s future.
Vision 2019 will include students, parents, faculty and staff, business owners, community leaders, alumni, and anyone else who is interested in sharing their thoughts and ideas in an effort to influence the District’s direction over the next three years.
“This is an exciting opportunity for our stakeholders to weigh in on what’s important and assist us with moving our school district forward,” said Dr. James J. Lavender, Superintendent of Schools.
Kingsway’s first strategic planning initiative, Vision 2016, began five years ago when Lavender was a new superintendent and the district was in desperate need of community support, direction, and enthusiasm.
“At that time we had suffered four or five consecutive budget defeats, had lost middle school and freshman athletics, and were laying off teachers. All while our student population continued to grow. It was a difficult time for Kingsway,” remembers Lavender.
“Stakeholder insight throughout the process helped renew our purpose as a school system, uplift our spirits and engender much needed community support. We were again excited about what we were trying to accomplish.”
Kingsway has since had every budget approved, restored middle and high school athletics as well as the 4 p.m. late bus, has created more than 60 new faculty positions, expanded the size of the middle and high school facilities by 100,000 square feet, has become a technologically progressive school system, has developed two high school Academy Program, increased Advanced Placement options, and has created close to 20 new course electives. For a complete update visit http://www.krsd.org/Page/754.
Lavender believes this second strategic planning initiative will provide similar results and will ultimately benefit Kingsway’s students. “We have accomplished a lot as a school system over the past five years and we are grateful to the hundreds of stakeholders who assisted us with developing a new direction. Now its time to take it a step further and we are relying on community input.”
Through Vision 2019, Kingsway will focus its efforts on three community meetings. Each meeting will have a theme and will be highly interactive. Every idea will be recorded.
This will not be the typical meeting as participants will be expected to roll up their sleeves and engage in idea sharing,” Lavender said. “I’m not going to tell you what I think, that will be the job of those who attend.”
The first meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 13, is titled “Points of Pride.” The goal is to discuss what makes Kingsway great.
The second meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 3, is titled “Expectations for the Future.” In this meeting participants will be asked to discuss what needs to change or what initiatives Kingsway needs to implement to become the best school system it can be.
The last community meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 9, is titled “Creating an Action Plan.” This meeting will focus on putting the ideas raised in previous meetings into an actionable plan.
Each meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the high school’s west cafeteria and last approximately one hour.
You can learn more about Kingsway’s strategic planning initiative by visiting http://www.krsd.org/Page/547.
