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After collecting data over the spring, the agency working with Albert Lea Area Schools to help design and implement a strategic plan is on pause before the next school year begins when it prepares to collect more information to develop a strategic roadmap before the end of the fall semester, with school and department improvement plans scheduled for the spring of 2024.

Ray Queener, principal consultant and chief operating officer of TeamWorks, gave school board members an update Tuesday about what has taken place thus far in the strategic planning process and what is still to come in the fall.

“Not only is the same comprehensive strategic planning a process, it is about putting a system of continual planning into the school district,” he said.

To that effect, he told the board the strategic plan was a great planning tool, but not a very good business model.

“I don’t call the superintendent in three to five years and say, ‘Let’s do this again,’” he said, noting it was TeamWorks’ job to install the system and support the district. Doing it that way, he said, allowed districts to stay flexible.

TeamWorks implemented a storywall, something he described as a look back from all the way back to 1969 to the present.

He then asked focus groups to provide an analysis of the district. During that analysis, individuals were asked to look at key events from certain time periods. TeamWorks then asked them what was the most influential.

“We wanted to study where were the successes, and where were the challenges, and what are the characteristics of both,” he said.

The idea was to replicate successes in planning while at the same time mitigating any challenges, essentially learning from the past to guide the future.

TeamWorks also asked teams to assess where the district was on a corporate lifecycle framework within their time period.

Following that, TeamWorks implemented what Queener described as an environmental scan in two phases: One where he asked teams to identify what was well-established within the district, gave energy, provided work but could be losing popularity, a term he labeled ebbing.

The second phase of the environmental scan pertained to what was new in education or new to the district.

“A really important area are those things that are emerging,” he said. “What is the district working on, what is it testing, because we want to be aware of what’s [in the works].”

They then examined key impacts for planning, essentially setting a stage to build a plan.

Following the sessions, TeamWorks spent time looking at desired daily experiences for students, families and staff, a process that went from the end of March to mid-April.

“This is a foundational component to our planning process,” Queener said.

During this stage, TeamWorks identified focus groups from the middle and high schools composing over 40 students.

“The difference between traditional strategic planning and the desired daily experience … is for students, families and staff is, “When do you engage with school? When do you come to school as a student? When do you engage in school as a parent? When you come to work as a staff member, describe your desired daily experience,” he said. “We use that to then build out our strategic plan, our operational plan, and deliver that.”

Results showed students desired longer lunches and more time between classes.

“What we’re seeing from the students’ perspective is a significant need for social interactions,” he said.

Over 20 parents and roughly 30 staff members also participated in the focus groups.

Using all that information, a survey was sent out to students, families and staff, which ran from mid-April to early May. Using responses, the planning team revised desired daily experiences.

Next for Queener and his team will involve reordering desired daily experiences and observing commonalities between students, parents and staff.

“Where there’s commonalities we want them kind of aligned so that when we think of initiatives and work, then you’re gonna do with your operational plan,” he said. “We want to get the biggest bang for the buck so we can look at initiatives that span all three stakeholders.”

TeamWorks is currently working with Albert Lea Area Schools in implementing the district’s strategic plan for the next few years. According to Queener, the company is in the middle of a pause for summer and plan to continue their work in August.

TeamWorks will return Sept. 13 to do a building and department strengths-and-needs session, something he said that generated “a lot of data.”

“We ask the departments to talk about strengths and needs, and also we ask the departments to look at core processes that they do in their departments and what are the strengths and needs of those core processes,” Queener said.

They also plan to develop a vision card, a tool administration could use to measure progress in implementing the plan. Superintendent Ron Wagner’s office will then be tasked with looking at the vision card, examining progress made and finally providing a report to the school board.

“We’ll have a draft of that in September,” he said, noting that it wasn’t until mid-October when TeamWorks will discuss any new work.

Nov. 6 TeamWorks will discuss with the board a mission, vision and core values. Later that month TeamWorks would like to start taking action.

According to the TeamWorks website, the company works with school leaders “to more effectively plan and implement strategic changes.”