District 233 school board members don’t have a crystal ball, but they are looking down the road a bit as they refine the five-year strategic plan for Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
A new thrust of the plan is the Profile of a Viking. It became part of the school’s curriculum this school year, although Superintendent Scott Wakeley wants to take the initiative outside of H-F High into the community.
“We’re all Vikings, everyone in our community. Even our elementary students should start thinking of themselves as Vikings,” he told board members at a Committee of the Whole meeting Oct 7.
Profile of a Viking has five categories – Diversity and Inclusion; Innovation and Problem-Solving; Reflection and Resilience; Communication and Collaboration; Citizenship and Character.
Under each of the subsets are six criteria, such as innovative problem-solving; citizenship and character; recognizing oppressive social forces and taking action against them; demonstrating perseverance and resilience; being curious.
Wakeley said some indicators are tangible and teachers can include them in the curriculum, but others are harder to define and meant to broaden a student’s horizons. The ideas presented in Profile of a Viking are “for all our students to understand purpose beyond one’s self; giving back to the community,” he said.
H-F Principal Clinton Alexander said the program has been a student motivator and teachers are giving recognition to students for their participation. He stressed that the effort is not just for the high achievers who often are recognized, but rather students throughout all grade levels.
“It doesn’t matter what courses you take, doesn’t matter where you think you want to end up. This is life-long learning. These are competencies that students can do these things,” Wakeley said, noting everyone understands what it means to have good character.
Gerald Pauling, president of the school board, called the plan “very unifying and we need that. Our community needs that; our country needs that now,” adding the plan is “something to coalesce around. I hope we’ll think about the power – not just recognizing kids but recognizing staff and community members.”
During the meeting the board also heard from H-F administrators on the work being done to meet the goals of the strategic plan.
The school board decided it needed to take a serious look at its operations – from all angles. After months of working with a consultant, the board adopted the strategic plan in 2019. Teams delved into various tasks to measure success and find means of improvement for the next five years.
The work got sidetracked during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Wakeley started reexamining the initiative in 2021 when he was superintendent-elect. He refined several titles for the six goals, looked at how the district had approached its work before the pandemic and now is ready to carry out the major work required under the strategic plan with the administrative team.
Work is being done in six categories:
- Future Ready: Students will graduate college-, career- and life-ready.
- Student Supports: Meeting academic, behavioral and social-emotional needs.
- Professional Excellence: Culturally competent staff using innovative, collaborative learning with high expectations.
- Communications & Engagement: The district will improve ways of communicating with students and community.
- Optimal Facilities: Ongoing initiatives to maintain and improve the high school buildings and grounds.
- Finances: Effective financial planning for current and future needs.
Board member Steve Anderson proposed a strategic plan when he was board president in 2018.
“I feel like we’re in a really good place with the plan, and with all the new administrators building action plans around the different subsets I feel like we’re in a good place now,” he said. “I feel like it was a great framework and a lot of great work went into it (in 2019), but I’m excited about the additional structure that we put around it now, and really excited to see where we’ll be at the end of this year.”
As the work progresses, the board will be sharing their work on the plan with the community, Wakeley said.