Lenape Regional High School District opens online survey for strategic planning input

Members of the LRHSD community are invited to take part in the 15-minute, online survey to share their thoughts on the district and its future.

By Zane Clark

The Sun

The Lenape Regional High School District has moved into the next phase of crafting its new, five-year strategic plan.

Through Jan. 21, officials are inviting members of the LRHSD community to partake in an online survey that will help the district involve even more members of the community in the strategic planning process.

The survey follows four strategic planning meetings the district held at each of its high schools from October through December.

Throughout those meetings, members of the LRHSD community shared thoughts on the strengths and challenges facing the district, offered a vision of the district in the next five years and how to achieve that vision, and offered thoughts on the skills and values students should have to prepare them for the future.

At those four meetings, Superintendent Carol Birnbohm noted the district last engaged in creating a 10-year strategic plan 10 years ago, at a time when Birnbohm said the trend in education was to create longer-range plans.

However, with the field of education changing more frequently in recent years due rapid changes in technology and the world at large, Birnbohm said districts now trend toward creating plans that focus on a shorter window of time.

“We were pleased to welcome more than 370 people to our school-level focus group meetings, where participants identified our district’s strengths and shared future expectations,” Birnbohm said in a message announcing the new, online survey. “Now, we aim to extend our reach and involve each of our community members in the Strategic Planning process through this brief survey.”

Similar to the previous four community meetings, the online survey is open to all LRHSD community members, whether they are students, graduates, current parents or guardians (as well as past or future parents or guardians), staff members, administrators, board members or general community members of the LRHSD’s eight sending municipalities.

According to a message at the start of the survey, the survey will take participants about 15 minutes to complete and is “very important to [district] efforts to establish [the district’s] new vision for public education.”

With the start of online survey, participants will be asked to state their relationship to the district and select the level to which they agree with statements such as the following:

• “Lenape Regional High School District communicates information that is clear and accessible.”
• “Lenape Regional High School District communicates information in a timely manner.”
• “Lenape Regional High School District staff communicate concerns and the progress of my child.”
• “Lenape Regional High School District staff are knowledgeable.”
• “The Lenape Regional High School District maintains state of the art facilities.”
• “The Lenape Regional High School District provides an academically rigorous curricula.”
• “The Lenape Regional High School District provides a wide range of activities/clubs and athletic programs.”

The survey will also ask questions such how participants would rank the following in terms of contributing to students’ success: time management, resiliency, confidence, creativity/ innovation, self-advocacy and perseverance.

Or questions such as how participants would rank the following investments as most important to student success: a green campus, the exterior of district facilities, the interior of facilities, safety and security, technology infrastructure and transportation.

As noted by Birnbohm and other officials at the district’s strategic meetings, data from the meetings and survey will be used by a team of professionals and members of the community to determine common themes and potential areas of focus when writing the district’s final strategic plan.

According to the district, officials plan to present the final version of new LRHSD strategic plan in September.

Members of the LRHSD community are invited to view the final plan at that time.

To participate in the online survey before Jan. 21, visit www.lrhsd.org/StrategicPlanningSurvey.