Community members are invited to round table discussions to help shape the future of Sequim schools.
Sequim School District officials are hosting a series of discussions to assist forming a district-wide strategic plan, starting this week.
Sequim school superintendent Regan Nickels offers an introduction to the process at the first meeting, set for 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, at the Guy Cole Event Center, 202 N. Blake Ave.
Strategic plan discussions are then held every other Thursday (except in April) through June 8, at the same time and location. Refreshments will be served.
“Our collaborative gatherings will include a combination of presentations and forward-thinking discussion activities,” district officials said in a press release. “We appreciate participants’ active involvement if you can attend just one or all of the scheduled sessions.”
RSVPs are appreciated but no required.
The schedule includes:
• Thursday, Jan. 12 — Strategic Planning Process Introduction and Future Focus
• Thursday, Jan. 26 — Workforce Needs and Societal Changes
• Thursday, Feb. 9 — Workforce Readiness and Skills for the Future
• Thursday, March 2 — Identifying 21st Century Competencies
• Thursday, March 16 — Portrait of a Graduate, Competencies, Integrated with District Goals
• Thursday, April 13 — Vision to Mission: Competencies and S.W.O.T. (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis
• Thursday, May 11 — Strategic Plan Goals Development and Portrait of a Graduate Logo Creation
• Thursday, May 25 — Strategic Plan Goals Development and Portrait of a Graduate Logo Creation continued
• Thursday, June 8 — Strategic Plan Objectives Development and Portrait of a Graduate Logo Creation
The Jan. 26 and Feb. 9 workshops with include ideas from school district representatives about how Sequim schools can adapt to workforce needs and an opportunity for the community to help with that refocusing.
“These sessions will be both, … and [an opportunity to] think about what’s coming next,” Nickels said.
“Education needs to be a tool to help our students entering that world. Workforce development is an investment we want to be making.”
The early March meeting focuses on “21st Century Competencies,” a set of skills Nickels noted includes “what competencies what students need to have solid, no matter what path they choose. “
The effort ties into the series’ “Portrait of a Graduate,” a process Nickels said includes developing the competencies each student would be guaranteed to have when they graduate from Sequim schools.
“Locally what we can decide what [competencies] should be, where is it that our community wants to land,” she said.
Much of this focus, she said, is based on the Redefining Ready model, a national initiative that introduces research-based metrics “to more appropriately assess that students are college ready, career ready and life ready,” according to the program’s website.
The series also includes development of a “Graduate Logo” – a piece of art that combines five key competencies local students will have upon graduation.
“We want to find a way visually to represent (those competencies), so it is front of center in everything we do,” Nickels said.
“My hope is that we have students directly involved in designing that.”
For more information, call the Sequim School District office at 360-582-3260.
