Administration reveals draft of three-year strategic plan

by Melissa Martin

Sept. 18 school board meeting

After nearly a year of planning and research, Superintendent Jeffrey Harrison unveiled a preliminary draft of the district’s three-year strategic plan to the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Board of Education.

Harrison said the plan, whose mission statement is “Educate, Empower and Engage,” is still being revised and will formally be presented to the board at its Oct. 16 meeting for discussion. Once the plan is adopted, it will be presented to the Brecksville and Broadview chambers of commerce and the Brecksville Kiwanis to use as a marketing tool.

More importantly, Harrison said, the plan will be used as a working document for everything the district does moving forward.

“We are going to use this plan every day,” he said. “When [teachers, students, administrators and the community] come to us with ideas, the first question we are going to ask is how does [the idea] educate, empower and engage.”

The community engaged in the process from December 2023 through October 2024 through a number of forums.

More than 1,000 individuals participated, 400 of whom took part in a scientific, community-based survey.

Additionally, more than 100 staff members participated in staff-engagement meetings conducted in the first quarter of 2024, and 189 staff members shared feedback.

The process, Harrison said, allowed the district to determine “what our community values, what they will support and how are we going to do that as a school district.”

In addition to creating a mission statement, Harrison said the process focused on establishing the vision, values and culture to develop the plan’s top-five strategic priorities:

1. The district will seek to become a top-5 school district in Ohio by improving relevant metrics before the end of the 2026-2027 school year.
2. All students in grades pre-K through 12 will have access to the resources, staffing and instructional practices, programs and curricula needed to improve their learning outcomes prior to the end of the 2026-27 school year.
3. The district will develop and maintain an ongoing community collaboration and communications plan with identified target audiences, modes of communication, necessary budgets and messaging that fulfills the district’s mission and vision of being a destination district.
4. Recognizing that public finance is a key component of trust and accountability, the district will increase fiscal awareness among community and civic stakeholders through training, communications and regular updates during the school year.
5.  The district will provide exceptional school facilities and learning environments that promote the highest standards of safety, security, efficiency, sustainability, connectivity and fostering school pride.

“That is the 50,000-foot view,” Harrison said. “I don’t know if these priorities would ever change to be quite honest with you.”

Harrison said in accordance with these goals, the district plans to better celebrate student and staff accomplishments and intends to develop leadership opportunities for staff.

“We don’t do too bad of a job celebrating student accomplishments because it’s pretty easy,” he said. “But I’m simply amazed that this district, at the level that we achieve and the standard of which our community has, that we don’t take the time to recognize distinguished service, going the extra mile or really calling out those employees who have poured themselves into our students over the years.”

In accordance with the strategic plan, Harrison said the district plans to implement a district-wide, professional learning plan; redesign its multi-tiered systems of support and assess all district resources to ensure teachers have all the tools they need to be successful.

“What sets [the BBH district] apart is that … we have set aside time for our staff to be able to collaborate with one another during the workday, and we need to make sure we’re using it as effectively as possible,” he said.

There will be an effort to better empower students beyond the classroom.

“We want to make sure students are equally prepared as they graduate as far as life skills are concerned,” he said. “I’m not talking about algebra or history, I’m talking could they balance a checkbook? Could they change a tire? Could they cook themselves a meal?”

Harrison said the district will create strategic partnerships, identify opportunities for enhanced communications and pursue campus master planning in the next three years. He also said the district plans to create a business advisory council, institute a career coach and business liaison and career exploration opportunities.

“There are partnerships we need to maximize, Sherwin-Williams being one of them,” he said, referring to the company’s new research and development center headquarters in Valor Acres. “Why are we not feeding Sherwin Williams some of the best talent available? We also want to expose our students to some of the opportunities available right here in Northeast Ohio.

“We need to do a better job of helping our students understand their strengths and how to leverage their strengths to a career field. Also, helping them identify their strengths also helps in the mental health and in the well-being of our students earlier in their careers.”

Campus master plan

Harrison presented a preliminary draft of the district’s campus master plan, which includes the former Hilton Elementary School being demolished by spring break.

To develop a vision for the property, the administration formed a steering committee charged with narrowing four options down to two.

“Once Hilton is demolished, we want to have a plan in place for developing it,” Harrison said. “This campus master plan is a dream. We haven’t talked about dollars and cents in how we’d pay for something like this. We are simply planning for the future.”

Harrison said the district will begin assessing costs of implementing each of the plan’s features and what sources of funding are available “to make those things happen.”

The district’s priority is to investigate the opening of the Hilton entrance onto the campus as a way to alleviate the traffic on Mill Road.

“That has been budgeted for, planned for and is what I would say is a district priority,” Harrison added.

The district is considering the construction of a bus-only entrance on the far side of the middle school.

“What would it take, what would it cost and how would it benefit us to separate all of our bus traffic from all of our teenage drivers,” he said, noting that the step is crucial to ensure the safety of students and drivers.” ∞