Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County School Board Members and Superintendent Robert Tuck invite the community to attend the first meeting of the Strategic Leadership Team, on Thursday, February 16 from 4:30 to 6:00pm at the ECTC (former MCC building). According to Superintendent Tuck, the guiding task of the team is to “envision a future and create a plan to achieve it.”

The purpose of the team is to conduct research and collect local feedback from students, parents, educators, employers and civic leaders so as to set the course for the next four years in our school community by establishing a Portrait of a Graduate and linking our current initiatives. The Portrait of a Graduate includes the Top 10 Skills of 2025 as created by the World Economic Forum. These skills include analytical thinking and innovation; active learning and learning strategies; complex problem solving; critical thinking and analysis; creativity, originality and initiative; leadership and social influence; technology use, monitoring and control; technology design and programming; reliance, stress tolerance and flexibility; and reasoning, problem-solving and ideation.

“These competencies will allow graduates to be successful when they leave Butler County Schools,” Superintendent Tuck explained.

The invitation to attend is extended to everyone in the community. Members of the Butler County Schools Deeper Learning Team, Community Outreach Team, Student Advisory Council, the Butler County Chamber Board, BC Fiscal Court Strategic Planning Committee, Extension Office Council and other community members have already committed.

Superintendent Tuck stressed that anyone from the community is welcome to join the strategic leadership team saying, “This is not my plan or the board’s plan, this is our community plan.”

At the inaugural meeting on Thursday, the team will work to answer three priority questions: What is the purpose of school? What does our community expect from us? And, how will we define success?

The team will be developing needs statements based upon the template __________ (user/characteristics) needs _______ (user need) so that ___________ (insight into their deeper desire.)

For example, employers need a simple way to impact instructional design so that they can have prepared workers.

Or, teachers need an efficient way to give actionable feedback so they can serve hundreds of learners.

“I hope this will add to the transparency of our district and help us continue to build capacity, and sustainability of that capacity,  that will allow us to meet our students' needs and help them become productive citizens,” Tuck said. “This committee will allow us to maintain the great programs and initiatives we already have in place, along with things we might want to add, to help keep us moving forward.”

The Team will meet several times over the next six months and work will conclude with a recommendation to the School Board in the spring.