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APS' five-year strategic plan is to 'do better'
A failure to plan is a plan for failure.
So to that end, Albuquerque Public Schools officials and school board members unveiled a five-year strategic plan, about a year in the making, to over a hundred administrators and other community members at a Wednesday morning summit dubbed 鈥溾
鈥淎PS, like many other urban districts, had a tendency over the last number of years to chase that silver bullet. The next shiny thing would come along, and we would say, 鈥極h, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 going to fix us,鈥 鈥 Superintendent Scott Elder said. 鈥淲e鈥檇 do a few years of something, and then people would get frustrated that it wasn鈥檛 showing immediate results.鈥
鈥淲e have got to set a plan,鈥 he added.
The plan, centered around goals and guardrails laid out earlier this year, includes input from over 2,000 parents, students, educators and others, district officials boasted.
It lays out four strategic priorities, along with general steps to make them a reality:
- Clear expectations 鈥 to make good on its goals and strategic plan, APS says it will need to first communicate them to all of its community, and that it will create a report card to track its progress.
- Rigorous instruction 鈥 to help provide some of its most historically underserved students a sufficient education, the district will 鈥渋nsist that students be taught math and English Language Arts at grade level,鈥 make sure they have equitable access to instructional materials, prioritize educator professional development and 鈥渄o a better job serving our special education students.鈥
- Engaged students 鈥 in part to curb the number of APS students who are chronically absent and support children鈥檚 mental health after the pandemic, APS plans to 鈥減rioritize social-emotional learning鈥 and work to make schools places students want to go to every day.
- Responsive and coordinated systems 鈥 to enhance district communication with school leaders and parents, APS says it will work to better engage with families about major decisions like changes in policies and incidents impacting their children鈥檚 schools in their native languages.
APS鈥 progress on the board goals will be by the school board, and district officials also have an internal document that lays out, step by step, who is responsible for specific parts of the strategic plan and when that should be completed.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited because the accountability piece is there,鈥 Chief of Schools Channell Segura said.
When something in the strategic plan isn鈥檛 working, officials say they will have the accountability systems in place to inform them when they need to pivot. But Elder also said the district still needs feedback from its community.
鈥淲e have to do better, APS has to take responsibility, and it has to change the way it does business,鈥 Elder said. 鈥淏ut we can鈥檛 do it alone. We need your feedback.鈥
Multiple high school seniors showed up at the summit to provide exactly that.
鈥淎 focus on making a better individual, rather than a high-performing student, might be something to include in these achievement goals,鈥 said Amaranta Manzanares-Juarez, an Albuquerque High School senior. 鈥淎 student who goes home and tests and focuses on academics only is possibly just as valuable as a student who is involved in their community and is a good leader.鈥
鈥淭his is my last year, and they changed everything,鈥 Sandia High School senior Taylor Trussell added. 鈥淢y schedule and my timing 鈥 everything got switched up. So I would just like more students to be heard.鈥