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Strategic Planning 2022 Task Force Begins!

The district is excited to share important information about our strategic plan development and the wide range of stakeholders that will participate in the process. As the Superintendent and Chief Learner, Dr. Roberson will be working collaboratively with stakeholders to evolve our district’s strategy so that all students experience Birmingham Public Schools in a way that allows them to reach their greatest potential academically and socially-emotionally. To accomplish this, we will engage in the strategic planning process through five phases:

Process Design- Develop a process and timeline

Community Engagement- Solicit a wide range of stakeholders to participate in committees, facilitate focus groups, administer community wide survey

Learning Phase- Analzye data

Strategic Plan Design Phase- Author foundational statements, core values, priorities and action plan

Communication Plan- Share strategic plan with community

This process will be inclusive and involve input from all stakeholders. Working with Hanover Research Group we will facilitate two, parallel conversations between a Core Design Team and an Advisory Committee. Further, there will be a Review Committee that will review and provide feedback on all draft documents before they are finalized. These three groups make up the BPS Strategic Plan Taskforce. Additionally, focus groups will be held to further provide data and feedback from our community. Below is a description of each group and their primary purpose.

Core Design Team: This team will consist of key decision-makers responsible for planning the design of the district plan process. This group will finalize recommendations from the Advisory Committee, incorporate feedback from the Review Committee, and author the action plan designed to achieve the strategic plan goals.

Advisory Committee: This group is comprised of 29 key stakeholders such as school administrators, teachers and parents. The committee will work together to draft and recommend key foundation statements, district priorities, core values, goals, and action steps.

Review Committee: This group is comprised of 31 key stakeholders such as school administrators, teachers, parents and community members. The committee will work together to review draft documents produced by the Advisory Committee and recommend revisions and enhancements to the Core Design Team.

Focus Groups: These groups encompass multiple stakeholders in various sessions. Focus groups include students, staff, full community, affinity groups and parent and community partners. These groups provide feedback through guided discussions around current and future work within Birmingham Public Schools.

Community Engagement & Learning Phase

Advisory Committee

The advisory committee will work together to draft and recommend key foundation statements, district priorities, core values, goals, and action steps and will consist of a diverse group of stakeholders that include teachers, school leaders, community members, and families. Hanover will facilitate three workshops with the advisory committee.

This Advisory Committee began meeting on January 5th and will participate in a total of three workshops. Between workshops, the committee is responsible for completing “homework”. There will be 3 workshops in the evening from 5-8 between January and March.

Advisory Workshop:
January 5, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Advisory Workshop:
March 8, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Advisory Homework Session:
March 16, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Advisory Workshop:
March 24, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Advisory Homework Session:
April 7, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Review Committee

The Review Committee will work together to review draft documents produced by the Advisory Committee and recommend revisions and enhancements to the Core Leadership Team.

This group will meet three times in the evening for 90 minutes between January and June.

Review Committee Meeting:
February 2, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Review Committee Meeting:
March 17, 7:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Review Committee Meeting:
April 18, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Focus Groups

Focus groups offer a powerful opportunity for gathering important information from stakeholders during the strategic planning process. They provide a voice to those most knowledgeable about the district by engaging in dialogue and allowing for formalized conversations. Stakeholders become partners in the development of the district’s core values, vision, mission, priorities and action plan. Further, focus group participants will be invaluable contributors to direction-setting for BPS. As another benefit, focus groups provide formal opportunities to examine the current perception, cultural expectations and aspirations of stakeholders for the district. Focus group registration information will be shared through the BPS E-News and on this website.

The district will be conducting 13 total focus groups:

Group: Friends & PAC
Date: 01/06/21
Time: 9:30-11:00 AM

Group: Students High School (Groves)
Date: 1/25/22
Time: 7:30-9:00AM

Group: Full Community
Date: 1/26/21
Time: 6:30-8:00 PM

Date: 2/7/21
Time: 6:30-8:00 PM

Group: Board of Education
Date: 1/22/22
Time: 10:30-12:00 PM

Group: BPS Leadership Team (Principals & Assistant Principals)
Date: 1/27/22
Time: 10:00-11:30 AM

Group: Students Middle School (BCS, Derby and Berkshire)
Date: 1/28/22
Time: 12:55-2:25 PM

Groups: Students High School (Seaholm)
Date: 2/1/22
Time: 7:30-9:00AM

Group: BPS Staff
Date: 2/3/22
Time: 4:00-5:30 PM

Group: BPS Staff
Date: 2/3/22
Time: 6:30-8:00 PM

Group: Students High School (Lincoln Street)
Date: 1/28/22
Time: 12:55-2:25 PM

Group: LFAN, AAFN, PRIDE
Date:  2/10/22
Time:  6:30-8:00 PM

Group: NEXT
Date: 2/15/22
Time: 9:30-11:00 AM

As of 3/09/22 the total number of stakeholders engaged through surveys, Focus Groups and other meetings is:
Focus Groups: 225
Focus Group Surveys: 21
Community Survey: 1,299
Strategic Plan Diagnostic Survey

As we continue to gather data to inform the development of our strategic plan priorities as a district, Birmingham Public Schools is committed to supporting efforts to reform beliefs, policies, and practices in an effort to maximize student learning and success. As a team, we will be working with Hanover Research to undertake a district-wide effort to better identify our priorities and gather stakeholder perceptions around performance related to those priorities. This is a long-term effort and our ultimate goal is to guide BPS along a pathway that supports an organization committed to putting students first.

In order to accomplish this, we must understand the diverse range of voices and experiences within our communities, then use this understanding as the cornerstone of our district’s strategic plan. As such, in late January we will be asking to hear stakeholder voices (including students) and gather perceptions related to strategic priorities and performance in our district by implementing a Strategic Priorities Diagnostic Survey. Please be on the lookout for an email which will include the link to the survey in your inbox. We will use the results of the Strategic Priorities Diagnostic Survey along with the results of our Equity Audit to inform the development of our strategic plan.

The Untold Stories of Strategic Planning

Priorities and Aims, Oh My!

Posted by April Imperio on 4/2/2022
On March 16th, 2022, there was a small but mighty group of advisory committee members convened at the Education and Administration Center for three hours. That group split into smaller groups of 3 or 4 and conducted a SWOT analysis, developed priorities and aims for the following topics:

Community Dynamics

Financial Factors

Human Resources

Physical Resources

Academics

Whole Child Factors

Fueled by delicious salad and turkey rolls, the group powered through a dynamic session centered in collaboration, providing thoughtful feedback that resulted in a strong set of priorities and aims related to each of the topics.
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March Madness

Posted by April Imperio on 4/2/2022
March Madness

March has been a busy month for strategic planning in Birmingham Public Schools. Due to the predictable mid-west March snow storm, the third advisory committee meeting was rescheduled to March 8th. Kathy and Matt from Hanover Research had an ambitious plan for the three-hour virtual meeting, which included:

Review and Collaborate on Core Values, Vision, and Mission

Analyze Gaps through Data Review

Conduct SWOT Analysis

Draft Priorities, Aims, and SMARTIE Goals

The committee was able to review a synthesis of feedback provided by the review committee on the draft core values:

Combine Equity and Inclusion? Combine Equity, Inclusion and Community?

Achievement – including a component around striving to meet their full potential.

Community – perhaps “cooperation” instead of “partnership” in definition.

Perseverance – perhaps “resilience” instead of or in addition to?

Incorporate home/parent connection in all values?

Embed “Perseverance” and “ integrity” with all four other values?

Being more specific with language – i.e., “authentic assessment;” “all” – change to “every;” “shared responsibility.”

After reviewing the feedback, the committee engaged in a discussion about what they agreed with in the feedback. The committee will spend an entire homework session in the month of April revising the draft vision, mission, and core values after they have deeply analyzed and considered the focus group and strategic plan survey data.

The remainder of the session was designed to model for the committee how to conduct a root cause and SWOT analysis and draft priorities, aims and SMARTIE goals.

At the end of the session, the committee had an initial understanding of the task ahead for the homework session and they had brainstormed some big bucket priorities such as: Improved Academic Outcomes, Providing Students with Advanced Curriculum, Allocating Human Resources Based on Need, Mechanisms for Equitable Support Resources, Teacher Workload/Wellbeing, Strengthening Home/School Relationships, Equity for Learners, and Inclusive School Communities. Further, the committee decided that moving forward we would meet in person.
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The Review Committee's Feverish Feedback

Posted by April Imperio on 2/24/2022

On February 2, 2022, there was a flurry of activity happening during our virtual review committee meeting! As our partners from Hanover Research walked the committee through a series of activities designed to capture the committee’s initial reactions to draft core values, vision, and mission statements, I was visualizing steam rising from each of the 34 participants' computers as they typed furiously to keep up with our pace. In the end, the committee provided insightful feedback. For example, the review committee shared the following related to the draft core values: “Could the core values be personalized to Birmingham with fewer buzz words?” You know how much educators love our buzz words! This reflection will lead to more personalization of our core values, which will only strengthen our educational community.

The core design team leveraged feedback to update the vision and mission statements, which will be shared and revised again by the advisory committee. A key recommendation shared by the review committee was to ensure that our vision is “simple, not so wordy and includes the community.” Further, the advisory committee will consider enhancements to the core values during their workshop #2 after reading the feedback from the review committee.

Although we were able to glean unbelievably valuable information from this exhilarating experience, we also learned we might need more than an hour for our future review committee meetings. What do you think review committee members should we extend our next meeting to 1.5?

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