Monday, May 6, 2024
Granbury Independent School District’s five-year strategic plan is just barely in the works, but many plans have already been put into action.
The strategic plan was approved by the Granbury ISD Board of Trustees on July 17, as a way for parents, students, district employees, city officials, business partners, and clergy to collaboratively shape the future of Granbury ISD.
Jimmy Dawson, GISD assistant superintendent, shared an update on the strategic plan during the monthly board meeting on Sept. 18.
"Dr. Deborah Brennan from Region 13 has charged us to keep our vision at the forefront, so here it is,” Dawson began during the meeting. “Granbury ISD inspires excellence and empowers all students to be future ready, and positive contributors to our community.”
The five-year plan envelops district data and contains four key pieces: facilities, culture, human capital, and student achievement.
Dawson said that the Long-Range Planning Committee was formed in June. On Aug. 8, the committee obtained a group consensus on the needs for a bond, and on Aug. 21, the LRPC approved the call for a $151 million bond.
The next steps for facilities, Dawson said, are to hold the bond election on Nov. 7 and to develop a facilities committee that will discuss district needs, research potential projects, and will create plans for keeping the district facilities secured and maintained.
"Dr. Deborah Brennan came up and did a training with us, so we're going to be able to track all of our progress through this dashboard,” he said. “Our staff and community have a quick glance at the progress, and as we take steps for each one of these strategies that are embedded into the strategic plan, we'll be updating that dashboard."
As for Granbury culture, three committees have been formed: a Capturing Kids’ Hearts Committee, a communications committee, and a culture committee.
"During our summer trainings, all secondary staff went through the Capturing Kids' Hearts training,” Dawson said. “We've already had great feedback from our staff.”
Next steps, he said, will include setting dates for every committee meeting, to get the communication committee to align all communications platforms for every campus, and for the culture committee to research, develop, and create a guidebook for staff to prevent and address bullying.
"I know it's a big topic, but just know we do have strong systems and procedures in place that have been used for years — this is going to just enhance and bring awareness to all of our staff,” Dawson said.
For human capital, the focus has started off strong with several accomplishments, including a committee that has now met and discussed a recommendation to secure funding to give raises to teachers.
A job fair and recruitment committee have also been formed, along with a mentor committee to “revise a line of work to support first- and second-year teachers.”
The next steps for human capital are to plan the job fairs, consider successful recruitment ideas, and to create surveys to gather data so the district can eventually implement a new mentoring program.
In student achievement, GISD’s curriculum team has trained all teachers in K-2 in the benchmark phonics curriculum, along with all instructional support teams and have been using that data to drive instruction.
Dawson said the next steps in student achievement are to establish a high-quality instruction committee and design a walkthrough form that's going to capture benchmark phonics implementation and to gather data for improvement.
“Remember, this is just a five-year plan, so it's gonna take time to get through the entire plan over the next four and a half years,” Dawson said.
For more information on GISD’s strategic plan, visit granburyisd.org online.
ashley@hcnews.com | 817-573-1243
