East Grand school board discusses strategic planning and school finance

Two presenters at the Nov. 1 East Grand School District board meeting took about half of the district’s public meeting to talk about strategic planning and school finance. They both joked about Superintendent Brad Ray asking them to not take forever with their talks, but Ray added he would not mind if their talks were long because of the presenters’ expertise.

Alex Carter from the Colorado Education Initiative and Tracey Rainey from the Colorado School Finance Project presented to the board at Ray’s invitation. Carter went first, introducing his company’s philosophy on strategic planning, which he described as an organizational change to help school districts seize opportunities.

“It starts at the top, creating a sense of urgency,” Carter said. “Really strategic planning is just the first three steps of any big change effort. It creates a sense of urgency — we need to have a better plan so that we can drive this district forward for the next five years.”

Carter spoke about how the initiative used committees and task forces made of parents and community members to get the community to buy into the plan and be willing to help implement it. He also mentioned the use of graduate profiles, something East Grand already has, as a strategic outcome.

Ray has mentioned strategic planning in the past, and…