Developing a Vision and Strategic Plan
Develop a vision and plan with specific action steps and timelines in order to start and operate your community school efficiently. Anticipate potential challenges that could slow down the process and plan ways to overcome them. Goals should be
SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
The Indicators of Capacity Toolkit and Partnership Compliance Checklist from Portland, OR can help you evaluate your school's capacities in implementing the community school strategy. It provides indicators on leadership and management, results and data, relationships with partners, planning and decision making, parent and community participation, and sustainability factors.
Oakland Unified School District
(OUSD) can be used as a model for creating plans for a community school at the site and district level in Oakland, California. OUSD uses five quality indicators to guide its efforts in its schools, as illustrated in sample strategies and strategic action plan. You can also see how the district plans each individual site in the templates created for elementary, middle and high school strategic plans.
SUN Community Schools
Another model for strategic site-level planning, provides various templates for developing annual plans and project-level worksheets for school-community partnerships in Multnomah County, Oregon. SUN’s efforts fall into four major goals for the schools. See more planning resources from SUN.
Tools by Initiative
These items will enable you to look more deeply into how several well-developed local initiatives are operating at the school and systems level.
Overview of Operating Elements of a Community School Initiative - Lincoln Community Learning Centers