The second Strategic Planning meeting for the Owen-Withee School District was held on Tuesday, May 27. The meeting began by looking at updated Mission and Vision statements. The Vision Statement was accepted by the group as written. A couple of changes were made to the Mission Statement. The new Vision Statement says, “Inspiring every student to achieve their fullest potential through education, leadership, and community service, equipping them for an evolving world and dynamic workforce.” The Mission Statement, after changes made by the group in attendance, says, “We are dedicated to fostering life-long learning, integrity, leadership, and active citizenship through innovative education.”
Discussion then continued on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Obstacles. An additional strength that was mentioned was the school’s ability to adapt to changing needs. Weaknesses included knowledge of how schools work, communication, and number of students. Opportunities included the community being supportive of the school system, a lot of success in sports and extra-curricular this year, and educating the public. Funding was brought up again as an obstacle as was people not being willing to run for school board. Another obstacle was lack of curriculum. It would save time if curriculum was aligned across the grades and teachers didn’t have to come up with it. Curriculum also has to be modified for special education and English as a Second Language students. One new resident of the district who is Hispanic spoke of the opportunities for her child and how the school represents the economy of the area.
District Administrator Randy Bergman then went through how school funding for the district is calculated. He said the only way to increase funding is to increase students or write grants. Some schools get more funding per student than Owen-Withee does. He said that if the school got an extra $3,000 in funding per student, they wouldn’t have to have referendums. Some districts get $15,000 to $21,000 per student. Owen-Withee gets about $11,000 per student. He added that the current school aid formula has been in place since 1993. People asked about the possibility of fundraising and sponsorships to raise extra money, rather than giving naming rights. A thank you for any donations could be put on the sign in front of the school.
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 23 and will focus on goals to achieve the mission.