On Monday, Nov. 18, the Hastings School Board hosted the second Community Collaboration Committee meeting of the 2024-25 school year for a strategic planning listening session. School Board Chair Carrie Tate styled the meeting as a “strategic vision refresh,” meant to be combined with the recent School Perceptions surveys in order to better tailor the school board’s strategic vision to the district.
The meeting was run by Director of Strategic Planning and Board Leadership at the Minnesota School Board Association Gail Gilman. Within the Hastings High School Lecture Hall Gilman and board members passed out worksheets and pens for attendees to fill out three questions: What things that are done well, where are opportunities for improvement, and descriptors of what the district should look like in 3-5 years.
“When you get pens and pencils you know this really is school,” quipped Gilman.
Attendees including parents, grandparents, current and retired teachers, principals, members of local ministries, alumnae, and members of the community all wrote down their answers to Gilman’s questions before being broken up into groups to discuss their answers. Only afterword did attendees get to share their thoughts with the group.
“I want to take advantage of all voices here tonight,” said Gilman.
First attendees spoke to the district’s praises. Attendees praised the district’s variety of classes and extra-curricular options as well as the facilities and the recent pod redesign of the middle school. A round of applause broke through the meeting at the first mention of the new cell phone policy. Other praise for the district included excellent staff and school board as well as improved communication overall.
The range of answers as to what are opportunities for improvement for the district spoke to the sheer variety of opinions across District 200. Attendees spoke to the need to close the achievement gap that Minnesota has long been known for, while others spoke to the need for the improvement of the most rigorous classes in order to better address the highest achieving students. Attendees spoke to the need for improving test scores like the MCA while others spoke to the need to move focus away from such standardized tests.
Many aspects listed as strengths of the district were also considered by some to be areas for improvement including communication, staff retention, school board availability and facility maintenance.
Other topics noted as areas of improvement include addressing the learning loss due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, drug education, staff diversity and access to cultural activities, the English language learner program, declining enrollment, the level of administration, and lack of printing, cursive, or typing curriculum.
“That was a really comprehensive list of things,” said Gilman after surveying the room.
Finally, the group was asked to come up with descriptors of what they would like to see in the School District in 3-5 years. Again answers varied. Some spoke to a need for academic rigor while others spoke to a need for addressing students where they are. Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa underscored the goal of making ISD 200 a “destination district.”
“Student-outcome focused,” said Vice-Chair Jessica Dressey.
While most of the attendees were parents and community members, their concerns reflected much of what Student Board Member, senior Briseis Rusnacko saw day-to-day: “I was nodding my head a lot.”
Spanish Teacher Rochelle Nielsen admitted that much of the response did not match her experiences teaching in the high school but that she “appreciated the opportunity to hear other people’s perceptions.”
Gilman and board members collected the worksheets after the meeting and will review them alongside the School Perceptions surveys to be discussed at the Dec. 4 school board work session that will take place at 6 p.m. at Hastings Middle School.
“Nothing that you said fell on deaf ears,” said Superintendent Champa