The Peru Gazette

From the Peru School District

The importance of working together to chart the course forward for the Peru Central School District was a sentiment echoed often by the parents, students, teachers and community leaders who gathered to share their insights during sessions held in February.

Those sessions were actually the first step in a planning process that will be driven by a culture of collaboration to achieve a shared, ideal vision for the future: Peru 2020.Attended by more than 80 people, the February forums identified new ideas for the school district, acknowledged past issues as an opportunity to avoid them in the future and started shaping a path

During recent years, Peru Central School District (PCSD) has experienced a myriad of changes and pressures. A communication chasm between the district and their stakeholders (students, parents, community leaders, etc.) has been further complicated with fresh challenges created by a change in superintendents, the Common Core Standards, five new board members, Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plans and continuing budget concerns.

To more effectively address both near-term issues as well as the steps necessary to realize the longer-term goals of the district, CITEC Business Solutions is working with PCSD to develop a new, long range strategic plan that will be created through the participation of representatives from throughout the entire community.

Equipped with the findings from the February forum, the next step in the process will be to bring together students, parents, district staff, teachers, administrators, board members, business leaders and community members to work on the Peru 2020 Strategic Plan.

Volunteers will be sought from all of these various stakeholder groups in order to serve on the Planning Team, as well as five committees which are particularly focused on the areas defined at the February forums:

1. Achievement Committee: Addressing student success in and out of the classroom, academic programs, and school accolades.

2. Innovation Committee: Generating new ideas to grow the District and make it more successful for the future.

3. Well-Being Committee: To create a healthy, safe and positive environment within the school.

4. Connection Committee: Determining how the district can best include and engage parents and community for better communications and to make the school a cornerstone of Peru.

5. Sustainability Committee: Planning for PCSD’s future – both fiscally and environmentally. Activities of the committees will include several meetings that will be facilitated by CITEC strategic planning experts to identify opportunities and develop the ideal ways to realize those, with a final plan prepared for PCSD to begin acting on later this year. Key steps in the strategic planning process as well as the findings from the February forums can be found on the Superintendent’s pages under the District tab of the PeruCSD.org website.

More information on how you can become involved in this important initiative to help the district will be provided in the coming days. To express your interest in participating now, please call the Superintendent’s office at (518) 643-6004 or email vision@perucsd.org today.