District vision cards discussed

The phrase “vision card” was introduced to the Waseca school district last fall by superintendent Eric Hudspith for use during the 2021-2022 school year. The district adopts a five-year strategic plan that is developed by the school board and lays out goals based on student needs. The current strategic plan, posted on the school’s website, continues through 2024 and includes six focus areas that the district concentrates on within that time frame. 

At its August 4 work session, the Waseca school board reviewed.the six focus areas: student achievement, student support, workforce, community engagement, academic program, and teaching and learning. Noted was growth in the areas of student achievement, student support, and teaching and learning, while the remaining experienced little change.

Hudspith and the school board see benefits for a district vision card: Having hard data makes it easier to set goals for the coming school year. The measurable data also outlines the new strategic plan for the next 5 years when that time comes. And, Hudspith says, “it can be challenging at times to see the impact of the strategic plan in our daily work, but vision cards help complete the connection from ‘boardroom to classroom’ .”

The six focus areas are configured into the vision card, a chart that outlines the specific, direct, measurable goals for growth in each area of the strategic plan. Each focus area has a number of selected goals and outlines the strategies to meet them. However the most important information for the district on their vision card is the data.

Baseline data for each of the focus areas is collected from the previous school year, a benchmark is set to indicate progress is being made, and the final benchmark indicates achievement. Hudspith gave an example for the focus area of student support: increasing breakfast participation by 20 percent. Using kitchen production records as the measuring tool, the vision card outlines baseline number (year start), progress number (10% increase), and the vision  (20% increase from start).