HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Packet - 2001-01-16 Jointi
Lake Oswego
City Council
50 ,4- Meeting of
ik, t 2001
JOINT MEETING
``1{p(LAKE ps�l8.‘,11
Lake Oswego City Council
ii',���Aiill gLake Oswe o School Board
Tuesday, January 16,2001
Y r 7:00 P.M.
0REGo1'+ Council Chambers
City Council School Board City Hall
Judie Hununestad,Mayor Marcia Donnelly, Chair 380 A Avenue
Jack Homan, Council President Leila Elliott AGENDA
Ellie McPeak Jim Zupancic
Gay Graham Chris Schetky Also published on the internet at: ci.oswego.or.us
Karl Rohde Marianne Carter Contact: Robyn Christie,Deputy City Recorder
Bill Schoen E-Mail: public_affairs@ci.oswego.or.us
John Turchi Phone: (503)675-3984
!This meeting is in a handicapped accessible location. For any special accommodations, please contact
1 Public Affairs,(503) 635-0236,48 hours before the meeting.
.stimated Start
=?zme
"`,00 1. CALL TO ORDER
2. ROLL CALL
3. INTRODUCTION/COMMENTS: Mayor and Board ('hair
4. COMMON INTERESTS: LOSD Facilities Bond
• Research Library
• Gyms
• Meeting Rooms
• Auditoriums
• Pool
• Athletic Fields
• Sprinkler Retrofit
5. CLOSING COMMENTS
6. ADJOURNMENT
City Council/School District Agenda Page I of I
January 16, 2001
Anummemommounimpnw
DRAFT
Lake Oswego School District
Strategic Plan 2001-2006
The purpose of the district's strategic plan is to provide frameworks, goals and strategies that
establish sound direction yet allow for personalized approaches to accomplishing the plan.
Despite its positive economic gains, the district does not foresee a time when it will not have to be
concerned about its economic future. Thus, the district must continue to see itself from two
complementary perspectives: 1) as an academic organization where effective learning and teaching
motivate minds to grow,people to learn together, and ideas to excite and invigorate; and 2) as an
economic organization where the efficient and effective use of resources is critical to its success.
However, with the passage of the local option and the facilities bond, along with the defeat of
several potentially damaging ballot measures, the district has arrived at a juncture where genuine
revitalization is possible. Through the collective efforts of many people, the district has before it
one of the greatest leadership opportunities of its history. Now we have the funding to provide our
students with better program opportunities and increased services as well as to make significant
improvements in our facilities districtwide----changes for which we have waited years. But beyond
restoring program and services and improving our facilities, we also have a collective opportunity
to revitalize the district, to revive and to renew our belief in what is possible.
Management
During the 1990s the district had to change its management orientation and strategy to provide the
best possible educational program and services with significantly reduced resources. Our
dominant management structure by necessity became hierarchical, enabling us to enforce cost
controls, to provide only essential support services, and to make unpopular decisions such as
downsizing and eliminating valued programs and services.
Now the district has the opportunity to return to a management philosophy more consistent with
our vision, values, and beliefs. Some of our district's greatest strengths have always been 1) that
we are big enough to be largely self-sufficient, but small enough to maintain a relatively flat
organizational structure with few layers of management, and 2)that we have valued, built and
maintained strong, positive, close working relationships with our employees and with our
employee associations.
To a great extent our future will be determined by how we treat the economic resources we have
been entrusted with, but of even more importance will be how we work with people. We have the
opportunity not only to create better conditions for our community of learners, but to re-establish
a community of leaders where partnerships are valued and nurtured.
Leadership
To accomplish these goals, we must return to a more fluid, circular view of the district where the
voice and organizational contribution of each individual is appreciated and valued. Building
effective partnerships of staff, students, parents, and the Lake Oswego community will require our
leaders to embrace four imperatives if we are to create the best possible conditions for people to be
successful:
1. Mission, vision, and values must be the essential driving forces of the organization.
2. Cooperation and collaboration must take precedence over competition.
3. Both high performance and innovation must be championed within the organization.
4. The heart and soul of the organization, its essential passion and spirit, is everyone's
responsibility.
s„9t Plwn,, 2000-01 surepc n.. I/2/01 1
4
DRAFT
Strategic Management and Leadership
The district will always need managers who are strong and decisive leaders and who can build
followership through trust and integrity, but to accomplish what is now possible,we need to
encourage and support people across the organization to share their insight, creativity, and
innovative ideas. If we are to improve, the skills that will be critical for our managers and leaders
during the next five years will be the ability to listen, to collaborate,to facilitate, and to develop
shared vision, both within the district and within the larger community.
Given the adverse economic conditions for the past ten years, our dominant management
orientation has been to limit what was possible. Now, however, it is important to remind
ourselves that management controls work only on the margins of the organization, not on the
hearts and souls of the individuals who make up the organization. What we need most is a
willingness from people to invest their energy and creativity not only in their own job role or in
their own classroom, but in the larger well being of the district as a whole.
As always, the difficult part of setting strategic direction from the district level is to be specific
enough to provide clarity and direction without being so overly prescriptive as to control, restrict,
or diminish innovation and creativity. The best way for the district to provide that direction is to
create vision, to define program, and to communicate frameworks from which people can work out
their own individual approaches to achieving the district's goals.
Economically, our options and opportunities have increased dramatically. Now, what is possible
is directly related to our collective ability to work well together. Transforming our vision into
actuality is up to us.
Changing Conditions, Changing Strategies
Pre-1990 1990-2000 2001-2006
Largely local control of funding State control of funding State control of funding, with the
addition of local funding option
Ample resources, largely locally Scarce resources, largely state Increased resources because
determined determined community supported local option
Largely local control of State-mandated educational State-mandated educational
educational program reform reform
Change focused on management Change focused on managing Change focused on management
and program improvement survival strategies and program improvement
Improvement enhanced by Survival strategy based on Improvement enhanced by adding
adding resources and expanding reducing resources,"downsizing" resources and revitalizing
program program
Structural stability for most Restructuring for most programs I Incremental structural change for
programs and services and services ` many programs and services
Focus on cooperation; external External competition of major Focus on cooperation and
competition of relatively little concern in retaining our own collaboration to build a stronger
concern students program for our students
Employees able to exercise some Employees constantly stretched to Employees regaining some
control over demands of the the limit of their capabilities control and influence
work load
Primary management strategy Primary management strategy Primary management strategy
participatory with top-down, hierarchical with decision making participatory with top-down,
bottom-up collaborations largely top-down bottom-up collaborations
Sup Planning 200041 Sump(Pon 1/2/01 2
DRAFT
District Mission
The District is committed to providing each student with a strong academic program in a safe,
supportive educational environment. Our schools strive to foster a love of learning, to instill a
sense of civic and social responsibility, and to develop the intellectual, physical and social skills
necessary for life-long personal achievement.
District Vision and Values Statement
The Lake Oswego School District is an exceptional school district with a strong commitment to
the value of education to our community and society. Our expectations are high, but we possess
the means with which to realize those expectations. Our district is characterized by talented
educators, able students, caring parents, and a supportive community—conditions that place
almost any accomplishment within our collective grasp. The challenge is in developing a school
district with the will and power to improve and to grow, where today's vision of what is possible
:an become tomorrow's reality.
1. Learning
To develop a school district where learning, both for students and for educators, is clearly
the primary value influencing decisions and actions.
2. Instruction
To develop a district with a comprehensive vision of instruction which includes a variety
of learning approaches appropriate to a variety of specific learning outcomes.
3. Participation
To develop a school district where processes which support the assumption that better
quality decisions occur when the creativity, innovativeness and decision-making ability of
the people within the organization are utilized are clearly in operation.
4. Climate
To develop a school district where high levels of trust, pervasive caring, and respect for the
dignity and worth of the individual are clearly evident, including the accepting and valuing
of divergent feelings and opinions.
5. Leadership
To develop a school district where the talent,expertise, creativity and enthusiasm of
administrators and teachers are engaged in organizational roles focused on improving
learning and instruction.
fn4n Yunnmj:0,X•.01 St-ainu Plan 1/2/0 1 3
Instructional Program Vision DRAFT
Realizing a school district that is uncertain of its core program assumptions is largely incapable of
strategic improvement, we must continue working to strengthen what we value most and stay
focused on the activities that will produce the results we seek. At the same time, we must invest
our energy and creativity to continue to meet the needs of our students, young people who will be
entering a world characterized by ever-accelerating change and increasing competition.
Our instructional program is based upon the following assumptions about the educational needs of
our students:
• Our students learn best within a supportive community in which we all—schools, parents,
and the community—have a stake in providing the best possible conditions for their success.
• Our students are different from one another, requiring us to continue to develop and to
employ a variety of instructional strategies as well as to provide more than one way to
achieve similar goals.
• Our students need to develop strong skills in language, computation, and technology.
• Our students need to form a strong sense of personal integrity as well as a sense of civic
and social responsibility.
• Our students need to become active, self-directed learners who take responsibility for their
own intellectual growth.
• Our students must learn with depth and understanding and must be able to apply their
knowledge and skills to new situations.
Planning Assumptions
The following assumptions underlie the 2001-2006 strategic plan.
1. Our focus will continue to be to provide each student with outstanding instruction in the
three foundation areas of our comprehensive program—academics, music and the arts, and
athletics/activities—in a safe, supportive educational environment.
2. We win embrace the exceptional opportunities offered by the passage of the local option
and the facilities bond.
3. The goals of improving learning, building community, and improving management will
continue to provide the framework for individual school improvement plans for the next
five years.
4. Timely, accurate, and clear communication from the district will be essential to effective
participation by students, staff, parents, and the community.
5. We must provide insightful, skillful and responsible oversight of the resources with which
the Lake Oswego community has entrusted us to ensure that we provide the best possible
educational program and facilities for those resources.
6. We will invite the community to share the responsibility to help determine the design and
layout of the facilities to be renovated and constructed.
7. We must re-affirm our participatory leadership values by ensuring that processes to provide
individuals throughout the district a genuine voice in shaping decisions are in place.
8. The building of cooperative, collaborative partnerships within the Lake Oswego
community will foster commitment to a shared responsibility for the education of our
children.
9. A strong partnership between the city and the school district is the cornerstone of the key
relationships that must he maintained to preserve the quality of public education in Lake
Oswego.
Su+n Plann n 2000.01 Svmrya Man 1/2/01 4
DRAFT
Continuous Improvement Strategies
The Lake Oswego School District is committed to continuous improvement. Over the past ten
years teachers have risen to the challenge of ensuring that academic performance would continue
to be strong in spite of very challenging conditions. Now that the district is once again in a
position to add resources in support of our programs and services, we have the opportunity to
revitalize the district, not just to renovate facilities but to continue our improvement effort
The first set of strategies pertains to the agenda of continuous improvement, focusing primarily on
the instructional program. Over the next five years the district will
1. Continue the development of individual school improvement plans focused on our district
goals: improving learning, building community, and improving management.
2. Continue to improve the instructional program, concentrating program development efforts
at all levels in the core academic disciplines of English, math, science, and social studies.
3. Continue to focus instructional improvement efforts on teaching for learning in five areas:
learn by doing, learn within context, learn for understanding, learn for transfer, and learn
how to learn.
4. Continue to strengthen our elective program, developing offerings that provide the most
value to our students and our community.
5. Continue to strengthen our athletics and activities programs, including developing
partnerships with the city and parent clubs who also provide programs for our students.
6. Continue to support the development of an extensive community school program to
provide student services and enrichment programs on a pay-for-participation basis.
7. Continue to employ an aggressive personnel strategy to seek and hire employees who are
bright, multi-talented, flexible, energetic, positive people who are deeply committed to
public education.
8. Continue building a learning partnership with our community by concentrating on
developing meaningful opportunities for people to come into our schools.
9. Continue to develop and implement a comprehensive communications plan, involving the
School Board, administrators, teachers, classified employees, and the Lake Oswego
community, to improve the sharing of information and enhance public relations.
10. Continue to develop and implement a comprehensive, differentiated evaluation system to
reflect district philosophy and changes in teacher and administrative contract law.
11. Continue to develop our partnership with the city by increasing cooperation and
collaboration, sharing resources, reducing competition, and providing complementary
services to the community.
s , ►.,,•,$:a poi ct.,r ,:ri,e 1/2/01 5
DRAFT
Financial Strategies
'Ihe district continues to be largely dependent upon the state legislature to fund its programs and
services. Even after ten years of extensive downsizing and restructuring, the I.ake Oswego School
District still does not receive from the state the resources necessary to fund what we consider to be
an adequate program. Thus,to enable the district to continue to provide our students with a
strong, comprehensive educational program, the district has committed to seeking additional
resources (e.g., local option, city serial levy, facilities improvement bond, Foundation, and parent
clubs). This past year, the Lake Oswego community has furnished the district with millions of
dollars to improve our programs and our facilities. Now we have a tremendous opportunity as
well as an important responsibility to be wise stewards of the resources the community has
provided.
The following strategies are primarily financial in nature. Over the next five years the district will
1. Exercise visionary, farsighted, responsible stewardship over the district's financial resources
to ensure the long-term economic well being of the district.
2. Continue to be guided by its financial stability strategy. The district's cash balance was
built to provide financial stability for the schools and will be spent, as it was intended, over
several years to ensure the provision of a strong,comprehensive program regardless of the
decisions made in Salem.
3. Continue to work to guarantee the quality and extensive nature of our academic, music and
athletic programs over time, providing us with the best opportunity to keep our own
students involved in public education in Lake Oswego, and also offering a powerful
attraction for people who value education and who are considering moving to Lake
Oswego.
4. Continue to make sound, safe, and wise investments of the district's cash resources.
5. Make facilities bond planning, organization and management a major priority of the School
Board and the administration since they are the single biggest additional responsibilities to
be undertaken.
6. Develop and enact a stringently honest appraisal and accountability system to determine
and address the barriers and constraints to accomplishing district goals and priorities.
7. Continue its commitment to providing competitive compensation in salary and benefits to
its employees, ensuring that we continue to hire and retain the highest quality staff.
8. Institute an ongoing approach to assessing the value and cost effectiveness of the way the
district has committed the local option resources to enhance the district's programs.
9. Continue to work to keep special services program expenditures in line with state and
federal special services resource allocations.
10. Work to provide the highest quality support services in facilities operations, transportation
and food services in the most cost effective manner.
11. Strive to align its financial strategies with those of the Foundation so the district can
continue to support the Foundation's efforts to provide additional teaching staff.
12. Continue to work in partnership with the city to provide the Lake Oswego community with
the best possible programs and services in a cooperative and collaborative relationship.
13. Continue to provide a broad range of fee-based programs and services through Community
School, with Community School being entrepreneurial enough to generate sufficient
revenue to be financially self-sustaining.
14. Develop and enact a comprehensive business plan for the financial and program operations
of the district swimming pool.
%As Mammy=000.01 Snottily Mae 1/2/01 6