The New Westminster school board is moving forward with a fresh master plan for the next five years.
The district’s first-ever five-year strategic plan was recently presented to school board and moved forward to be fine-tuned by staff and trustees.
The strategic plan outlines four strategic priorities: A) Transform the student experience, B) Build meaningful relationships, C) Lead into our future and D) Ensure full participation in learning.
After a staff-recommended motion that the school board approve the strategic plan as is, trustee Gurveen Dhaliwal suggested an amendment to refer to the plan as phase one so the public “doesn’t think this is the final document.”
“There’s still the operationalization to consider, and there were still some pieces of wording that I think can be better crafted. But that’s something to look forward to further down the road,” Dhaliwal said.
Superintendent Karim Hachlaf said he was OK with changing the phrasing to “phase one,” saying he was largely looking for support on the strategic priorities.
“That allows the next phase to begin, which is the operationalizing, which still is a process of sharing those updates and the board having further opportunity for input on that,” Hachlaf said. “But that work is critical so we can continue.”
He said staff would like to have a polished phase one of the plan so the work can get underway at the start of the next school year, which would entail looking at an operational plan.
“Phase one is the foundational document that requires board approval that sets the foundation and really the architecture around a successful operational plan. That I’m seeking approval [for] so that it’s not delayed,” Hachlaf said.
The strategic plan in its current form is a 10-page document, containing three more-or-less completed parts – our foundation, our identity and our strategic priorities – with a fourth part so far unfinished.
That fourth part, titled “our plan,” will contain department objectives, performance indicators and operational plans.
