Crafting a Strategic Vision for 2025

At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, Barrow County School System rolled out its first Strategic Navigation Plan. The plan was intended to ensure that all stakeholders - including the school board, district staff, principals, teachers, students, parents, and community members - worked toward a shared set of goals and priorities.

Since then, these six navigational beacons have guided the work of our district, schools, and leaders:

1. Build a sense of community and pride among stakeholders.
2. Attract, employ, develop, and retain the most effective people to provide a high-quality education for all students. 
3. Strengthen partnerships to sustain a culture of participation, engagement, and commitment to education. 
4. Proactively manage system growth.
5. Enhance school and system funding and resource effectiveness. 
6. Leverage technology and digital tools efficiently and effectively. 

Strategic planning is a disciplined and thoughtful process that links our school system’s values, mission, and goals with a set of coherent strategies and tasks designed to achieve those goals. 

With a slight delay due to the pandemic, our district is now embarking on crafting a new strategic vision as we look ahead to 2025. We will explore aspirations for the Barrow County School System, consider new and current programs, and brainstorm “game-changing” ideas that will propel us into future growth, engagement, and success. 

Over the next several months, the school system will invite families, teachers, and community leaders to participate in this process. School governance teams will help promote participation and engagement. Here are the general timeline and steps for our approach:

• January and February: School Community Discussion Groups
• March: Education Summit
• April: School System Staff Strategic Action Planning Session
• May: Board of Education Strategic Planning Session

We encourage our families, staff, and community to participate in our school system’s strategic planning process. It is important to us that different perspectives are shared and considered to represent all of our stakeholders. As Superintendent Dr. McMichael often shares, “You can’t have a great school system without a great community. And you can’t have a great community without a great school system.”