Supt. Phillips advises board on next steps in process
Aurora Supt. Jody Phillips summarized some of the findings of five community discussions last week, advising the 4R School Board of what he views as priority issues and the next steps in the district’s strategic planning process he hopes will address those needs.
Based on input and feedback from those discussions, as well as 427 surveys completed by 4R patrons, Phillips told board members at the July 10 meeting that he would like to focus on four main areas — academic programming and student achievement; budget and finance; facilities; and school safety and security.
“Those are the four areas that received the most feedback and I guess the highest priority in those responses,” he said. “So what does that look like?”
Phillips then briefly broke down each of those focus areas, sharing what he believes to be the staff and community’s core concerns and priorities.
“For academic programming and student achievement, the first thing is ensuring high quality instruction in all classrooms for all students,” he began. “The second thing is to set benchmarks and goals for student achievement.”
Part of that process, Phillips explained, will be to communicate programming and achievement to parents, including, for example, plans to expand preschool classrooms and services within the district, expand high-ability learning programming and services, and cross-curricular focus areas for all students.
“So, we have the focus area and we have kind of the goals,” Phillips said of the academic programming content. “The next step I will tell you, and we don’t have that tonight, but that’s when this process will become the most emotional because we will be talking about how we’re going to do this and that sometimes means change. Change is not always everyone’s favorite thing to do, but these are my thoughts.”
On the topic of budget and finance, Phillips said the goal will be simply to communicate.
“What we received as far as feedback was that we don’t have a lot of people who understand school finance, they don’t understand the budgeting process, taxes, valuations, all of that.”
The goals, as identified in the survey and discussions, include hiring and retaining quality employees, adequately funding academic and activity programs, being responsible with spending, while investing in the future and facilities.
“Speaking of facilities, we need to know what the current condition of our facilities is,” Phillips continued, explaining the need for a planned feasibility study. “We need to address safety concerns. We need to address critical facility needs. We need to have discussions about remodel versus new. We need to have discussions about repair versus replace. We need to look at what future growth might look like and then whether we have the space and the facilities for that.”
In that sense, Phillips noted, facility needs and budget/finance go hand in hand.
On the topic of safety and security, Phillips said efforts to train staff and students with crisis response procedures drew mixed reviews.
“That’s a very emotional thing, however we need to be consistent and constantly working with our staff and our students,” he said. “I will tell you that was probably the most split. There are people who are very frustrated that we have crisis drills, as they feel like that is hurting and scarring our kids. And we have people who don’t think we’re doing enough. So that obviously needs to be a focus area and a goal, along with reporting procedures.”
Concerns with students walking between buildings, locking doors, security cameras and mental health were also common themes in the community discussions, he added, thus should be priorities in the strategic plan as well.
“Again, this is my proposal with my initial thoughts of goals,” he said.
Phillips explained that he plans to seek the board’s approval in solidifying strategic planning goals at the next board meeting, scheduled for Aug. 14. If the board signs on, he said the next step will be to move forward with creating action plans.
On a final note, he reported that $802 has been spent to date publicizing and hosting the various community input sessions. He said he initially sought bids to have an outside agency coordinate the process, receiving bids ranging from $5,000 to as much as $60,000.