Mendon-Upton Regional School District Shares 2022-2023 Action Plan
MENDON – Superintendent Maureen Cohen wishes to share this year’s District Action Plan, which will guide the District’s improvement efforts during this school year.
The District’s Strategic Plan was developed by a Strategic Planning Committee in 2018 around the mission of “We Empower All Learners to Thrive.” Each year the school district identifies strategic initiatives and objectives of that plan to develop annual goals.
The Mendon-Upton Regional School District goals for the 2022-2023 school year are based on four pillars:
Understanding our Students: The District will review, implement and develop formal processes to use student data, with the goal of better understanding students’ strengths, challenges, and needs. This goal includes development of a calendar to raise awareness of cultural events observed by families in the District; and reviewing equity and access in school programming; and updating the process by which teachers collaborate on the use of student data to better understand all students.
Supporting our Students: The District will enhance the district’s multi-tiered systems of support to ensure support for social-emotional learning and safe, healthy, and balanced learning environments. This goal includes targeted professional development in co-teaching and trauma-informed practices, implementation of a revised District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP), and ensuring incorporation of inclusive practices into instruction.
Engaging our Students: The District will design opportunities for students and staff to engage in learning that allows them to develop skills and competencies needed to be successful in the world and in the workforce of the future. In particular, the focus this year is to integrate the district’s Portrait of a Learner competencies explicitly across the schools. Additionally, this goal includes emphasis on project-based learning experiences, Inspired Learning Days, and developing personal narratives of learning through a portfolio approach.
Strategic Planning and Communicating to Families: The District will develop district capital and strategic plans to forecast financial implications. This will be accomplished through developing and sustaining best practices in operations and an evaluation of fields and facilities for the purpose of capital planning. In the fifth year of their 2018 Strategic Plan, a new committee will be formed to create a new 5-year strategic plan.
“The District’s Action Plan is a key element in our efforts to continually improve as a District,” Superintendent Cohen said. “We need to know as much as possible about our students’ strengths, hopes, and dreams so that we may provide them with the maximum opportunity for success. Supporting our students also means supporting our students, as well as our teaching staff in their professional goals, to ensure the safety and well-being of all. Engaging our students is at the heart of what makes us stand out as a District. Our commitment to authentic learning experiences, empowering our students to follow their passions and interests, and innovative approaches to bringing our Portrait of a Learner Competencies to life for all students are hallmarks of our mission To Empower All Learners to Thrive.”
The Mendon-Upton Regional School District’s Strategic Plan Inspire was developed by a Strategic Planning Committee and is in its fifth and final year. The District intends to form a new committee in December to begin visioning a plan for the future. The committee will conduct a district-wide self-assessment, and solicit feedback from stakeholders including parents, community, administrators, School Committee members, students, faculty, and staff.
Interested community members may find the District’s Action Plan here, and Superintendent Cohen’s presentation to the School Committee here.