WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg-James City County (WJCC) School Board presented its Realignment and Update of the Strategic Plan; Elevate Beyond Excellence Bridge to 2028 at its Oct. 15 meeting.
“The plan is a road map to take us from our current state to an ideal state and creates a system of measurable continuous improvement,” stated school Superintendent Olwen Herron.
The original strategic plan, Elevate Beyond Excellence was launched in 2017. The original comprehensive and inclusive process was the foundation for setting the vision, plan and priorities for WJCC Schools for the last seven years.
Due to pandemic constraints, as well as the uncertain future of the joint school division, a full strategic planning process with the entire committee was not initiated.
“The timeline was extended due to the City of Williamsburg’s announcement of a study to consider the possibility of an independent Williamsburg School Division. We did not believe it was appropriate to invite input from the whole community and into a new strategic plan discussion when we did not know if we would be one school division or two,” said Herron.
“The City of Williamsburg’s announcement was in June 2023 — 14 months ago. And, as you know, the school division is still in limbo today. We don’t have a resolution at this time although we are greatly encouraged by the most recent announcement of continued discussion of the potential of a new joint contract,” Herron continued. “With that in mind, we are moving forward with a realigned and updated plan to guide us for the next four years.”
The high-level priorities of stakeholders and the community from the original plan were used as the foundation for creating a bridge plan to guide the work of the school division for the next four years. All new measurable goals are aligned with the original priorities established by the larger community in 2017 and the current needs of the school division.
During the school board vote, all members approved with the exception of Michael Hosang.
Board member Randy Rifle stated, “I am quite excited about the revamping and revisions to the Elevate Beyond Excellence Plan 2028. I thought it was a fun process as a board member to learn a lot about the division in a short amount of time. I would like to commend the staff of central office and the many stakeholders who are part of these decisions.”
Moving forward the meeting launched the Bridge Plan and December Launch dashboard of Key Performance Indicators, after which twice-yearly progress reports will be completed.
The full plan can be seen on the WJCC School webpage.
