For two months this spring, an interactive survey gave City of Poughkeepsie community stakeholders an opportunity to convey what they believe should be the guiding objectives and goals for the Poughkeepsie City School District as it forms its next strategic plan.

Last Wednesday, district leadership and members of the Board of Education gathered to review that input and provide their own, as the process to create a new three-year strategic plan accelerates.

The session was part of the district’s annual retreat, held last week at Dutchess BOCES, at which leadership discussed priorities and strategies, defined roles, shared updated on key initiatives and engaged in professional development. The next step in the strategic planning process will be an Aug. 11 meeting at BOCES, where various community stakeholders will be able to hear the district’s progress and provide opinions.

Working with an external company, the Blueprint for Excellence Strategic Planning Service, the district aims to have its three-year plan finalized by the beginning of the school year.

At the session Wednesday, led by Blueprint, Poughkeepsie team members were encouraged to think about the district’s mission, vision and core values for what should be prioritized to best serve students and families. The discussion was centered around the feedback, gathered through a ThoughtExchange survey circulated to the community across several channels in May and June.

In all, 313 people participated in the survey, 52% of whom identified as a parent or guardian of a student in the district. The respondents were broken down into specific groups defining which school their student attends or which school in which they work, and no group accounted for more than 14% of the responses.

The survey revealed nine broad areas in which the district should focus on in building its plan:

• A robust and rigorous curriculum.
• Social and emotional learning and mental health support.
• The variety of opportunities And experiences offered.
• Professional development.
• Strengthen connections between leadership and members of staff.
• Appropriate staffing levels.
• Recruitment and retention of leadership and staff members.
• Communication and engagement within and from the district.
• Equitable distribution of resources.

For each area of focus, the leadership team was also given five to 10 sub-categories drilling deeper into the responses. The areas were created through digesting and grouping specific suggestions and comments left by respondents; through the ThoughtExchange platform, users were able to also rate the value of those comments, which was also taken into account. District leadership Wednesday reviewed all the comments and their ratings. 

Some examples included:

• The district could be improved by boosting student engagement through more incentives, hands-on learning, meaningful trips and youth-centered opportunities.
• Structured mentorship should be offered to all new teachers and administrators.
• All elementary schools should have the same rules.
• The culture of Poughkeepsie Middle School needs to improve and there should be consistent administration in the school.
• An alternative program should be offered for high school students considering dropping out.
• All special education classes should have a teaching assistant.
• There should be smaller class sizes.
• Educators should undergo trauma-informed training and learn de-escalation techniques.

The Poughkeepsie team then broke into groups to provide and discuss their own values. Collaboration, accountability, transparency, respect and growth were among the key words that continually came up in the responses.

In discussing the district’s purpose, many responses focused on the need to make student-centered decisions, while remembering to serve whole families’ needs. Leadership said the district should:

• Provide tools for students to become productive members of the community.
• Support the whole child in their development.
• Educate every child to improve their future outcomes, no matter their starting point.

“It is scholars, first,” Poughkeepsie High School Principal Dr. Phee Simpson said. “We need to make sure that’s what we’re looking at every time we come to the table.”

Several district leaders talked about the importance of providing opportunities to all populations of students and understand the diversity of the community.

“Our children come from different economic needs,” Board of Education Vice President Eleanor Evans-Chiarenza said. “We serve all of the children and meet the need where all of the children come from.”