West Vancouver Board of School Trustees

Strategic Plan 2006–2008

Strategic Plan 2006–2008

West Vancouver School District—thepremier place for learning.

When we gathered to craft a strategicvision for an already high-achieving publicschool district, our task as your Board ofSchool Trustees was to build on a richtradition of excellence and chart a courseto extend and expand that strength intonew avenues of success. During theplanning process, we sought input fromour education partners—teachers, parents,support staff, and administrators—to ensureour strategy includes the voices of all ofour constituents.

The result is our Strategic Plan 2006—2008. This plan will focus our resourcesand guide us over the next three years aswe work to ensure the long-term success ofour school district.

West Vancouver Board of School Trustees

Jane Kellett, Chair

David Stevenson, Vice-Chair

Mary-Ann Booth, Trustee

Cindy Dekker, Trustee

Coral Winfield, Trustee

Overview

Our new Vision Statement embodies ourprimary goal, and positions our district as aneducation leader in a global context. OurValues are our guiding principles, andencapsulate all that we stand for. Our threemain Strategic Issues define the overarchingframework of the Strategic Plan, with goalsand objectives providing the building blockswith which to create an action plan to achievethose goals.

The Strategic Plan 2006—2008 will enhanceour ability to best serve our educationcommunity as we work to provide each of ourstudents with the opportunity to meet his orher individual potential.

We invite your comments, and welcome yourfeedback.

We aspire to be the finest

education system in the

country—for our children,

our employees, our community,

and our world.

Our Vision

Our Values

Pursuit of Excellence We are committed to the pursuit of excellence.

Collaboration We are committed to seeking input from all those whose liveswe touch before making decisions.

Inclusiveness We are committed to supporting and celebrating the successesof all of our learners.

Respect and Fairness We are committed to treating everyone with respect andfairness. We honour and celebrate our differences.

Ethical Action We are committed to being honest and ethical ineverything we do. We aspire to have an organizational cultureof integrity.

Openness We are committed to making our processes and decisions asopen as possible.

Responsible We are committed to making responsible decisions on behalfof all of those that we serve. We believe that we should be heldaccountable for those decisions.

Joy We do serious work, but we are committed to infusing ourwork with fun and joy.

Strategic Issue 1 Educational Excellence

One of our core values, perhaps our most important one, is the pursuit of excellence.While most of our students go on to post-secondary education, there are other routes to livingfulfilling lives. We need to continue to promote educational excellence for all of our students.

Goals and Objectives

• Continue to set high standards of achievement for our students in order to best

prepare them for success in university and college.

• Support all students in clarifying and pursuing satisfying careers, regardless of their

learning interests or direction, by exploring attitudes to applied skills training in

our secondary schools, and helping shape acceptance to these options.

• Enhance career choice support for students, without sacrificing preparation in core

academic skills.

• Strive to ensure that all of our students love school and learning by enhancing our

child-centred instructional practices to increase flexibility, excitement, and fun,

and including the effective use of educational technology.

• Demonstrate educational leadership through our work with our local community,

with municipal council, and in partnership with the Kay Meek Centre and others, to

develop a world-class arts performing arts program to serve both local and out-of-

district markets.

• Raise the level of health and fitness among our children.

Promising Practices

• Extending the responsibilities of our secondary teacher-leaders as they work to ensure our students continue to

achieve the highest standing in the province for academic achievement, including our graduation completion

rate, scholarship rate, and university admissions rate

• Lower than average class sizes

• Elementary wireless laptop initiative

• Increased funding allocated to library and learning resources

• The Kay Meek Centre, providing world-class performing arts opportunities for students and community members

• A continued focus on music education, including new partnerships with the Vancouver Opera Association and

the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

• New fitness and nutrition initiatives, and participation in the province’s progressive Action Schools! BC program

• An interactive community forum (February 2006) on “Healthy Eating, Higher Grades”

• Innovative Service Learning projects that integrate community service with academic study to enrich learning—

unique in BC

Strategic Issue 2 System Sustainability

Our future will be assured to the extent we take steps now to make sure our financial, hu-man, and physical resources are sustainable.

Goals and Objectives

• Expand our financial resources by optimizing the level of government funding, and

by continuing to diversify and expand alternative streams of revenue.

• Increase our ability to attract and retain high quality staff by increasing our

ability to compete for and retain employees in areas that present particular

recruitment and retention challenges.

• Continue our innovative and collaborative focus on addressing workload issues.

• Develop a succession plan for senior leadership.

• Maintain and improve our physical plant and infrastructure, including planning

for enhancements to facilities.

• Upgrade our technology infrastructure to support Strategic Issue 1—

Educational Excellence.

• Optimize student enrolment opportunities, and maintain our share of the eligible

student market.

• Develop a district sustainability action plan that provides for an enhanced level of

environmental education (K–12) and is at the same time closely connected to the

work of our Facilities Department.

Promising Practices

• Programs of choice:

- K PLUS all-day Kindergarten

- Hockey Academy

- Soccer Academy

- International short- and long-term programs

- Summer Camps

- Summer Learning

- Community Learning

- Early and Late French Immersion

- International Baccalaureate Program

- International Baccalaureate–

Primary Years Program

- Super Achievers

- Computer Immersion Program

- Advanced Placement Program

• Innovative employee workload initiative

• Expanded and enhanced school facilities,

including the opening of Ecole Cedardale in

2004, and a focus on maintaining the finest

learning environments

• Planning ongoing for future growth and

expansion of technology in our schools

• Student enrolment trend countering the

provincial trend of declining enrolment

West Vancouver’s unique model of shared leadership, where “parents,

teachers, students, support staff, and administrators all demonstrate

leadership focused on student achievement.”

—Ministry of Education District Review (February 2005)

EV IDENCE OF SUCCESS

Strategic Issue 3 Community Connections

Our relationships and connections with our partners are critical to our success. We need to do asuperb job of cultivating and nurturing those relationships, listening and responding to theirconcerns, and communicating our achievements.

Goals and Objectives

• Tell our story; celebrate who we are; promote our school district’s identity by communicating the

achievements of our students and staff to all our communities.

• Maintain and enhance our collaborative model by continuing to support staff in their efforts

to enhance student learning, and by continuing our collaborative mandate with all of our

partner groups.

• Involve more students in the work of our committees.

• Deepen our connections with our communities as part of the overall promotion of a

learning community.

• Explore broader collaborative educational opportunities with other communities and

municipal councils.

• Address the unique needs of immigrant children and families.

Promising Practices

• A highly-subscribed series of Dialogues for Student Achievement and Distinguished Lectures in 2005/06:

- “Healthy Eating, Higher Grades”

- “Supporting the ADHD Student: At Home, At School, In the Community”

- “Raising Successful, Caring Boys”

- “An Afternoon with Gervase Phinn”

• A new and enhanced website; E-newsletters

• Youth School Board, Youth Advisory Council, Rotary student Interac Clubs

• School Board liaison meetings with the mayor and council of Lions Bay, Bowen Island, and West Vancouver

• Collaborative community initiatives, such as BOOKtopia (with the West Vancouver Memorial Library)

• “The variety of ways in which families for whom English is not a first language are welcomed and supported,

such as partnering of families and parental outreach” (District Review, 2005)

West Vancouver School District

1075 – 21st Street

West Vancouver, BC V7V 4A9

T (604) 981-1000

F (604) 981-1001

www.sd45.bc.ca