LaX school meet brings 42 for plan input

LaCrosse schools last week hosted a planning for the future night, and several community members came out to discuss the school's vision going forward.

“We had about 42 people from the community there, which is a pretty good turnout for us,” said Doug Curtis, LaCrosse superintendent.

The planning for the future night was booked so the school district could develop a vision for the future of the K-12 school. The meeting was part of the school board's plan to gain feedback for a three-to-five year vision plan.

“We talked about academics and career preparation, student activities and enrichment, technology, facilities and community relations,” said Jeff Pietila, LaCrosse principal.

The meeting was split into three groups to allow for higher individual participation, with Pietila and Curtis each leading groups and school counselor Codi Titus leading another. A school board member was also present in each group.

“We really appreciated the community coming in and giving us that feedback,” said Curtis.

Pietila said there was a range of people at the meeting, including parents of children not yet in school, parents of school-aged children and residents who do not have children in school. He said there were not many senior citizens.

“It was a really good turnout. We were very happy,” he said. “It was all very positive with people looking forward to seeing what we can do for our kids.”

Pietila said he and Curtis have not yet sat down and gone over all of the information collected through the meeting, but they were hoping to do that this week.

“We just haven't really had the time yet,” he said.

Curtis said once the information is gathered, it will be used as a part of the three-to-five year improvement plan.

“We think it's going to come down to putting the information into three categories,” he said, explaining the categories as student experience, community and collaboration and resource management.

“At least that's kind of what we're thinking right now.”

In addition to the three input groups last week, participants were also asked to answer two questions.

“We asked people to give us a list of things that they never thought should be changed about our small school and then a list of things they think should be changed,” said Pietila.

Participants were also asked to give the school a grade, he added.

Curtis said the same exercises were completed with the staff about three weeks ago, and one of the next steps is doing the same with the students.

“We want to get that same kind of feedback from them,” he said.

All of the information will be taken and considered as the school board works to develop its comprehensive plan. Curtis said the development of a plan is a four-phase process, with the first having been the pre-planning stage when the school board started the discussion and began gathering questions. The second phase is the collection of input and information from staff, parents and students, and the third phase is actually coming up with the plan. The fourth phase will be the implementation of the plan.

“It was just time to kind of do a comprehensive plan like this,” said Curtis. “It gives us something to follow.”

Curtis said the hope is to have the comprehensive plan ready by May.

“We want to have a plan in place at the end of the school year so that we can implement it at the beginning of the next school year,” he said.

Pietila said the community input is appreciated.

“I'm just excited to see the community have as much interest in the school and the direction they provided,” he said. “It's really refreshing to see the community come out.”