More than 30 community members and educators are gathering monthly to shape the route Brown County Schools will follow for the next five years.

The Brown County Schools Strategic Planning Team is looking at the district’s mission statement, core values, vision and a dashboard/scorecard of key performance indicators, targets, strategies, action plans and goals.

Teachers and administrators are on the team, but so are parents, grandparents and members of the community at large — and more are welcome to join as they are able, said Superintendent Laura Hammack.

At the first meeting in August, team members told the group what they thought the district was doing well. Providing a “family” atmosphere and meeting students at their levels were some of the most-repeated answers.

The rest of the meeting was spent reviewing the district’s current mission statement — “Brown County Schools prepares students to achieve success through quality instruction” — and determining who the community stakeholders are.

Business owners, local government agencies, churches, homeschool groups, the local media, parents/grandparents/guardians, alumni, local law enforcement and others all have an interest in seeing Brown County students do well, the group determined.

In September, the group suggested changes for the current vision statement: “Brown County Schools provides a safe and supportive learning environment with high expectations effectively meeting the needs of our students and helping them reach their individual academic goals.”

Team members broke into groups to discuss what they would like to see added. Suggestions included phrases like “maximizing student potential,” “community success,” “experiences beyond instruction,” “inspiring excellence” and “preparing students for a lifetime of success.”

Before the Oct. 27 meeting, team members had homework: coming up with new concepts for the core values of Brown County Schools.

Hammack said the discussions are “change not for the sake of changing, but changing for the benefit of this organization.

“This process is to honor and celebrate the incredible things that we’re doing in this district, as well as identify what areas that we can think about, five years into the future, that we want to make sure are on our radar.

“We want be at the front end of change,” she said.

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What: Brown County Schools Strategic Planning Team

When: Dec. 22, Jan. 26, Feb. 23, March 30, April 27, all Thursdays from 6-7:30 p.m.

Where: Brown County Intermediate School

Who: All welcome to participate

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