Too many plans and projects are proposed and approved without a thorough VISION to implement them through to completion. All the pieces of a plan must be geared toward, and draw a picture of, HOW you will achieve the results you envision. Strategic Planning must be supported by the whole organization, with specific individual assignments, accountability, and timelines.
When you change your foundational values based upon social issues and changing norms, you set yourself up to fail, both now and in the future. The overall educational goals and mission must be firmly based upon consistent, unchanging values. These values must equally support student success and provide accurate metrics to improve teaching methods and curricula, with intermediate objectives to uphold those foundational values into the future.
Approaches to accomplishing a task are only as successful as the worldview of the planners. A group or board whose members possess a narrow focus and limited experience directing large-scale, complex projects has a limited scope of success. Both political and social ideologies within a group must be diverse and open to receive new information that will increase the potential for greater successes.
An organization whose actions, decisions and responsibilities affect the lives and futures of individuals, a community and potentially a region or nation, cannot operate in secrecy. They cannot be allowed to establish any type of exclusivity with respect to their thoughts, discussions and decisions on subjects or issues. The School Board, like any other Board, must operate with transparency and clarity and not be allowed to hide issues, decisions or actions in the shadows to face face or mask ethical concerns. Without transparency and clarity, teams, boards and individual officers will eventually be tempted to cut corners, overlook indiscretions, and cover up major issues and mistakes that may expose poor planning, decision-making, and personal failures in leadership.
• Establish a multi-year Strategic Vision that outlines current conditions and then projects into the future to identify emerging changes in education, fiscal oversight, and legislative developments.
• Support and promote parents’ involvement and accountability for their students’ academics and extra-curricular participation with a focus on Capabilities for the students’ future.
• Improve Life Application fundamentals that provide better comprehension. Students need tangible, foundational core education in Reading, English, History, Civics, Practical Mathematics, and Science as the building blocks to improved test scores and success in life.
"Prepared and paid for by the School Board Candidate Phil Sammon committee, 901 Viking Street; Alexandria, MN 56308"