Warsaw Community Schools
Overview
For residents of Kosciusko County, Indiana, Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) serves as a public square. It’s a place that welcomes and celebrates families from all backgrounds, a place that businesses turn to when they need a trusted partner, and a place where community members come together to create the best possible future for Warsaw students.
The Opportunity
The strength of WCS is its people and their proactive commitment to their students’ success. That same commitment is evident in WCS’s history of five-year strategic planning. By prioritizing a common set of goals that align operations and resources for a half-decade at a time, WCS has been able to set its sights on ambitious outcomes and achieve great things as a school community—including multiple STEM certifications, an integrated social-emotional learning curriculum, and an innovative career center.
In early 2020, WCS partnered with SmallBox to create a new five-year strategic plan with their students at its core. With our support, WCS wanted to engage the current school community in co-creating the outcome. The new plan needed to better reach growing and underserved populations, be at the forefront of educating for new job markets, attract and retain students from other communities, and, ultimately, inspire all students, teachers, and community members to realize their dreams.
The Approach
SmallBox began with community listening in order to include school stakeholders as active participants in the process. We toured schools to experience the facilities and curriculum firsthand. We were welcomed into neighborhoods to learn directly from the diverse communities WCS serves. We had meaningful conversations with students, teachers, parents, business and nonprofit leaders, and residents who shared their personal insights, stories, and experiences.
To achieve big ideas and visionary goals, there must also be coordinated action. After determining the four main pillars (or themes) for the strategic plan, SmallBox facilitated a retreat of more than 40 stakeholders to determine the “roadmap” for each pillar. We collaboratively defined the strategies needed to bring each outcome to life, then stakeholders worked together to define the tactics and key performance metrics that would ensure their success.
“SmallBox was very focused on an end goal. The entire process had rhyme and reason.”
- DR. DAVID HOFFERT, SUPERINTENDENT
Ongoing Commitment
We developed an oversight process that includes annual community listening sessions and strategy calibration retreats to keep the plan on track throughout its five-year span. Through this process, WCS has ensured continuous improvement by managing necessary change based on student, staff, and community feedback.
What’s Next?
As WCS completes their 2020 strategic plan and looks to their next planning process, they’ve proven that their success can be found in their dedicated community and the power of a shared vision.
“Our developed strategies are pushing the envelope and causing our teams to think differently about education and our actions for the next 5 years.”
- KRISTA POLSTON, GRANTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR
