Tumwater School District ramps up strategic planning initiatives 

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Tumwater School District (OSD) is working with service provider Performance Fact on a strategic planning initiative crucial for shaping the district’s future, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of the students, staff and community. 

“I am pleased to announce that we're well on our way of our strategic planning. It will be a one-year process through the 2024-25 school year, and it will help set our goals and vision for the next five years,” said Assistant Superintendent Meagan Dawson, who updated OSD Board of Directors at a Dec. 12. 

A well-crafted strategic plan is useful in setting goals, aligning resources and guiding the district toward its continuous improvement. Dawson wrote in her memorandum that this type of planning is essential to TSD, given its current budget challenges. 

Dawson said a strategic plan will help TSD prioritize spending and focus on the most important cornerstones of education. 

Performance Fact President and CEO Mutiu Fagbayi emphasized that they will only facilitate and not control TSD in its strategic planning.  

“It's really very important … to put our role in context. We see ourselves as facilitators, and what we do is to guide you towards what makes sense for you. We don't command, we don't control, it wouldn't work anyway. But we do direct,” Fagbayi said.

Fagbayi said Performance Fact does not impose on their clients, but lets them know what comes out of the process for them.  

 “We are there to align external perspective with your internal vision for your school district,” Fagbayi said. 

For updates to the strategic planning process, the district has launched a new strategic planning link on the home page of the TSD website, which features resources and opportunities for community engagement. 

Planning structure 

Performance Fact highlighted that the primary purpose of planning is to facilitate alignment, the process of reaching a mutual understanding about common goals.  

Performance Fact also stated that a strategic planning process must proactively seek out and embrace the diverse voices of an organization's participants.  

The strategic planning effort will utilize a series of participant planning teams to ensure diversity and equity of voice, and representation.  

The planning teams include Student Voice, Core Planning Team, Instructional Focus Team, Alignment Team, Family Team, Community Forum, School Department, Principals and Administrators Team, Board Review and Superintendent Leadership Team.  

“We don't have all the answers for you, but we do have a perspective, and by working collaboratively with you through all of these different team structures, you come up with something that is truly local, something that (is) unique to you but also informed by practice and what other districts have done in the past,” Fagbayi said. 

Dawson said that the 24,000 district residents will receive an invitation to encourage community members to sign up for planning committees so they can participate in the strategic planning process, attend input sessions and provide feedback. 

Timeline of events  

The following are some key dates of the strategic planning process scheduled in January 2025:  

  • Jan. 21-22: Kick-off Meeting with Core Planning Team 
  • Jan. 21: Alignment Leaders Team meeting (evening) 
  • Jan. 27-28: Instructional Focus Team Workshop 
  • Jan. 28: Ad Council (Principals, Directors, Leaders) listening session 

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