Dear Parents and Guardians,

On February 11, 2016, the Board of Education approved the contracted services of the Cambrian Group to facilitate our District through a five-year Strategic Planning process.  While our mission is to focus on inspiring student learning and improve academic performance by providing quality education and parent partnership for all students that will prepare them for responsible participation in a changing global society, what exactly does that mean? What does it look like? How do we accomplish that? How do we all fit into that mission here in WUSD?

The purpose of a Strategic Plan is to provide a clearly defined and focused road map for all of us to strategically serve the needs of our students. The Strategic Planning processes will narrow our organizational focus on a series of deliverable goals that strengthen our core beliefs and ensure that all our students graduate high school ready to enter college and a career with skills they need to succeed in this century.

The Strategic Plan will function both as the District’s blueprint for success aligned to our LCAP and as a powerful communication tool in the community clearly defining WUSD’s vision, goals and strategic objectives.

First, we need to create committees to accomplish our Strategic Plan. The first committee to begin this process will be our Strategic Planning Committee who will be comprised of representatives of the majority of our school community: Board, Cabinet, Administration, Teachers, Support Services, Classified, Parents, Community Leader, Higher Education and High School Students. This is a large committee of about 20-25 people! The Strategic Planning Committee will spend days reflecting and wrestling with who we are, where we have been, and where we need to go. The Strategic Planning Committee will create the new vision statement, determine our core beliefs and strategic goals to accomplish on behalf of students WUSD. We anticipate this part of the Strategic Planning process to be completed before school is out in June.

The second part of committee work will be focused with site administration, teacher and staff on creating action plans on how to accomplish our strategic goals. Work on the action plans will take place between August – November 2016.

We project that the completed Strategic Plan will be brought to our community and Board for final approval by December 2016.

In order for this work to be inclusive of our school community, I have attached a Strategic Planning Participation Form for people to send back to the Superintendent’s Office expressing interest in participating on the Strategic Planning process. The Strategic Planning Committee will be comprised of 20-25 members. The amount of people on Action Plan Committees will be determined once the strategic goals are identified. We anticipate having administration, teachers and staff being the experts on creating these Action Plans on how we can accomplish our goals together.

Those serving on the Strategic Planning Committee will be volunteering their time and efforts to this great endeavor. Volunteer time will include a full Saturday and 2.5 days during the work week.

I am excited at the possibilities and potential of our District. It will take our commitment together to bring our District to the next level ~ one person is unable do this critical work alone. Please consider being part of this work in some manner.

Thank you, in advance, for your thoughtful consideration of participation and support to this important work on behalf of our students in Washington Unified. Together, we will make a difference.

Sincerely and truly yours,

Linda C. Luna, Superintendent