The Board of Education wants your input on how it is doing, how you would like to see it prioritize resources, and what you think of its five goals for its 2012 strategic plan.

Those five points are, as board Vice President Glenn Wikle acknowledges, a broad blueprint to begin developing more specific strategies for the district. Basically, the goals focus on promoting high academic achievement, recruiting and retaining qualified personnel, engaging families and building a safe and sustainable school community.

The board started discussing these goals in September and, over the course of a few meetings this past autumn, refined them while creating several subcommittees, including a middle-school task force and a bilingual-education committee, as part of it strategic planning.

"Overall, those goals are designed to have an end result of increasing academic achievement for student success," said board President Barbara Gudwin. "We want our students to be college-ready and job-ready when they leave our school district, which means keeping them in school. Our strategic-planning process is designed to be inclusive." Hence, the request for public feedback.

During a late November meeting on board goals at the district's Educational Services Center on Alta Vista Street, Gudwin said that while board members have to be cautious about micromanaging the district or honing in on specific management tasks that are not within the board's purview, board members should offer individualistic suggestions toward creating a strategic plan. Her goal as board president, she said at that time, is to make Santa Fe the best school district in the state. But, she said, it becomes the administrative team's job to make that happen.

"We need to make some changes within our district," she said at that meeting. "This board has an obligation to implement change. We have a mediocre district. We want to excel. What actions do we need to put in place to excel?"

Board member Steven Carrillo made a good point at that meeting when he suggested that the board should ensure these goals are specific and attainable: "There's a difference between saying, 'I want to run in a race,' and 'I want to win the race.' Let's come up with goals and then build a strategic plan to meet those goals."

At that event, all the board members stressed the need to encourage more parent involvement and build community support. So here's your chance. Visit www.sfps.info. You can provide feedback to the board there as well, but the district wants to get your input by Tuesday, Dec. 20 — the date of the last school board meeting of this year.

Gudwin said the board hopes to create at least a three-year strategic plan by April.

Shut off the phone

Let's say a winter storm hits, and Santa Fe Public Schools decides to close for the day. One way to stay informed is to subscribe to the district's Robocall system, which uses School Messenger to automatically call student/parent phone numbers with an automated message with emergency/weather-related updates.

So what happens if you don't want to be on that list — or the district is calling an incorrect number? Call the district's Office of Student Data at 467-2590 and ask that your number be blocked for all calls, which includes emergency calls.

Incidentally, Santa Fe Public Schools closes effective Wednesday, Dec. 21, through Tuesday, Jan. 3. All facilities, except for the school gyms at the two high schools, will basically be closed during
this time period. School resumes on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.