The Washoe County School Board of Trustees on Tuesday voted to approve a $100,000 strategic plan for the 2023-2026 school years. The plan includes the district’s “promise, goals, measures, building blocks and ‘Portrait of a Washoe County School District Graduate.’”
However, what the plan does not include are strategies or steps on how to achieve the goals.
According to Superintendent Susan Enfield, the strategic plan acts as a “roadmap” for the entire school system. The district hired Performance Fact Inc. to create the plan based on input from the district and trustees, which began in Jan. 2023 with an online survey.
Community meetings, as well as outreach surveys, were held to determine the direction the plan should take. Goals for the plan generally include improvement in educational achievements, safety, equity and more.
Some goals listed within the plan include increasing access to high-quality pre-kindergarten programs, increasing the percentage of students who are achieving grade-level standards by third grade and increasing the percentage of students who are logging into Infinite Campus to check their grades.
The plan has goals but does not include any steps for how those goals can be achieved.
Enfield said those strategies will be determined by the end of August when it will be brought back before the board.
“We’ll be working on it all summer,” Enfield said.
Trustee Jeff Church asked whether specific percentages will be fleshed out for goals such as increasing the percentage of students achieving grade level standards.
Mutiu Fagbayi, president of Performance Fact, said there will be specific percentages included in the strategy portion of the plan that will be returning.
Church said the improvement of the strategic plan over the prior plan which included many “50 cent words.”
The new plan, he said, was more basic. Church pointed out the strategic plan is not actually a plan because there are no strategies in place.
“I’m seeing a Powerpoint that guides us towards a strategic plan, but the attachment B that we have [labeled] Strategic Plan Draft is simply a one page powerpoint,” Church said. “I don’t see a plan to vote on … I see a Powerpoint with percentages that aren’t filled in. So maybe we want to consider re-wording the motion. We’re not voting on a plan. We’re voting on something that’s going to come back to us as a plan.”
Enfield responded that what was presented was the plan and that what would be coming back was the specific strategies to achieve the goals.
“This is the heart of the plan. This lays out what we’re going to be focusing on,” Enfield said.
Board President Beth Smith said that to her, what was presented was a plan, but that she understood Church was looking for the next steps for implementation tactics and methods.
Performance Fact Inc. was paid $105,000 for their work, which spanned Dec. 2022 to June 30, 2023. It is not clear if the contract is being extended through August, or if the district will continue working on their strategies and measurements without the help of Performance Fact.
The plan passed unanimously accompanied by a round of applause from the trustees.
Tensions flare
Tensions flared after Church pulled multiple consent agenda items to be heard despite being asked to “whittle down” his requests.
“Pulling” an agenda item moves it from a single vote in a group of items to the pulled item being discussed before the block vote. Consent agenda items are typically grouped as a time-saving method, and often deal with contracts, recurring events and regular board business.
One agenda item in particular became contentious after Church was told that the item could not be pulled for discussion unless a second trustee agreed to open it, as the topic had already been approved by the board once before.
The item dealt with revisions to a board policy deal with the purpose of “engaging diverse viewpoints.”
Changes to the policy include ensuring members of public bodies within the district attend two-thirds of all meetings to remain in good standing, defines the workings of the staff liaison and limits member terms to three consecutive years as opposed to the current five-year maximum.
Church asked for the policy to be revised after it had already been discussed and approved at the last school board meeting. Church said he did not believe the revisions were enough.
“The public body policy states ‘to engage diverse viewpoints’; however the policy allows the majority in each and every case to appoint the committee members,” Church alleged. “Individual trustees or minority trustees have virtually no say. It doesn’t present diverse viewpoints, it presents one viewpoint.
“I do appreciate the changes that were made by my fellow trustees regarding the attendance and the tenure, but to me that is a deal killer so I have to vote no overall,” he added.
“Okay, very good to know that you’re gonna vote no on the policy that you asked us to make all the changes for because you did not get everything you wanted,” Smith replied.
Tensions between Smith and Church also came about concerning how many consent agenda items Church pulled.
“So you realize you’re pulling about half the consent agenda right now?” Smith said. “Is there any way you can just make a statement on some of these rather than pulling them?”
“I think it’s more like 33 percent,” Church said. “You asked me to whittle it down. I did whittle it down from my previous request, but in order to vote no, I think I need to pull these.”
All items Church pulled were passed. Church voted against them.
Budget update
Trustees were updated on estimated district revenues following the passage of legislative bills.
“This was a historic session, with a historic increase in K-12 funding,” WCSD’s Chief Financial Officer Mark Mathers said. “I don’t think we’ll see anything like this again anytime soon. This was monumental.”
The K-12 funding bill increased funding by $318.5 million over the next two years.
In Washoe County, additional per-pupil funding will generate $22.8 million in additional generalfund revenues.
Prior to the recent bills being passed, the projected 2024 final budget resulted in a surplus of $63.5 million. That surplus is now projected to increase to $76.7 million.
Proposed funding items include increasing school police coverage in middle schools and eliminating stand-alone principals in schools. School police will get four new officers in the upcoming year, with another four officers in the following year.
A larger budget decision will take place at the next Board of Trustees meeting on June 27.
New instructional materials approved
The board approved the purchase of instructional materials for English language arts, science and biology for approximately $8.75 million.
According to WCSD’s Troy Parks, chief academic officer, and Kindra Fox, director of secondary curriculum and instruction, the last middle-school English language arts adoption occurred almost 20 years ago.
A program was selected that with software that gives feedback to students and offers revision ideas.
Each budget item was approved unanimously.
