St. Michael-Albertville Schools Set Plans for the Next Four Years

A group of committed and energized teachers, administrators, parents, public and school board met this year to answer the question: “What do we want education to be like in four years and what are we going to do to get there?”. 

The result is a focus on what the community wants our schools to aspire to, a vision, and plans to achieve the vision, strategic directions.  Now, STMA is asking for feedback from staff and the community at large.

The St. Michael-Albertville School Board has written an initial draft of a vision and five key initiatives based upon the discussions of a group of over 40 participants who attended an all-day retreat in February.   

Parents, staff and community members are invited to go to the district’s web site and under the announcement of “District 885 Strategic Road Map” complete a brief survey on the proposed vision and strategic directions - www.stma.k12.mn.us.  The survey will be open through Friday May 11.  School board members will use the feedback in finalizing the STMA Strategic Roadmap.

Vision

The vision reads:

Independent School District 885 will, by 2016, consistently achieve academic rankings in the top 15 percent of all Minnesota public school districts. By increasing academic achievement for all students while maintaining sound fiscal practices, the School District will continue to be the pride and center of the community. 

Strategic Directions

The five strategic directions are:

To achieve its Mission and attain its Vision, District 885 will:

• Increase the use of educational data to identify each student’s strengths and weakness and then provide individualized instruction to maximize learning growth and proficiency achievement for all students.

• Increase and continue to improve communications and accountability between school staff, students and their families.

• Plan budgets and prioritize expenditures to effectively and efficiently allocate available resources to new and essential programming.

• Increase the scope, depth and impact of our community partnerships.

• Hire and train high-performing staff capable of delivering outstanding educational instruction and exemplary support services.

The school board will discuss the feedback at its May 21 meeting, and it will vote on a final draft in June. School administrators will develop a four-year plan of initiatives and budget that align with the strategic directions and achieve the vision. 

Dr. Jim Behle, Superintendent said the plan "makes the commitment to be among the best schools in the state and not rest on our laurels and recognizes that it takes great teachers and collaboration with parents and the community to reach the goal.”