School board passes 2026 Strategic Plan

Pre-meeting, the board spent time in executive session discussing the 2026 Strategic Plan, which was up for a vote that evening.

“We had a great work session today and I want to take a moment to thank the board for robust conversation and engagement as we dug in on some pretty tough topics — equity, planning, facilities, goal setting and how to operate effectively as a board. I look forward to our continued collaboration and work throughout the school year,” said Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn.

A recording of the work session is available for public viewing at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBaVxdaz-ow.

The board later approved adoption of the plan by a 4-1 vote — voting “aye” were Garcia-Ramirez, Corinda Hankins Elliott, Reitz and Brandi Sheppard; voting “nay” was Kelly, with Hosford abstaining.

Polkinghorn said the Vision 2020 strategic plan had been sunsetted at the end of the 2020 school year. Work on the 2026 plan began in October with a task force of school administrators, and then opened up for input by district stakeholders staff, students and parent groups. From March until May, those ideas were developed into seven goals, each with action steps: Identify, target and close opportunity and access gaps; graduate students from high school ready for college, career and community success; implement relevant, rigorous and engaging learning opportunities; establish high expectations for academic and personal growth for every student; strengthen partnerships with families and the community; prioritize health and safety as a critical component of school success; and develop a highlight qualified, diverse and culturally proficient workforce.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone who was involved in this strategic planning, I know that it involves not only staff from the district but volunteers; there were representatives from the board,” said Garcia-Ramirez. “It takes a lot of work and looking at every single piece and everything we do in the district, so I just want to commend you and thank you for that work.” She then moved to approve the plan as presented; Hankins Elliott seconded the motion.

Later, Kelly said, “My voting no was not the way I wanted to start out my school board career, but I felt like I had to do it for a number of reasons … I believe we’re on the right track and we’re doing good things. I voted no, however, because I think the plan uses some politically loaded terms and ideology and I believe their inclusion is unnecessary and will propagate unnecessary divisiveness among families and students in our district and my goal is for inclusiveness of everyone in our district regardless of their politics, skin color, culture, or what have you. My goal is to establish transparency and maintain respect and trust from all of our stakeholders.”

“There’s some things I’ve been studying the last six months that put me forward into the motion of abstaining my vote today — that may have surprised you, but I know the work that’s being done is incredible, but I just think we can be better,” said Hosford. “And so that was my vote. It has nothing to do with content, it has a lot to do with where I am, representing my constituents here in the valley.”

Said Reitz, “It was really hard to end last year without having a new plan in place because I really felt we kind of were floating and it was time, it had been five years. And we’ve changed, a lot, in five years. We should have new and updated goals, and places we want to be. So thank you to your whole staff and everyone who participated in creating the strategic plan that I think is really exciting for our district and the kids in our community. It really addresses the special needs of every single one of our kids that, unfortunately, sometimes in education in the past, not everybody did get to have that individualized thought.”