De Soto School District residents are invited to attend a series of meetings and give their two cents’ worth about the future of the district.
The first of six community meetings focused on strategic planning will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. today, Thursday, Jan. 12, in the library at De Soto High School, 815 Amvets Drive.
Another meeting will be held each month through June, with the gatherings held at different district buildings.
“School districts go through this process every three to five years,” Superintendent Josh Isaacson said.
District parents, students, employees and anyone else from the community interested in the school district are invited to participate in the meetings, he said.
“Even if you can’t make all six meetings, we invite you to go to one,” Isaacson said.
The topics to be discussed include school buildings and infrastructure, safety and security, and technology, he said.
At each meeting, representatives from the host building will provide a short presentation about needs they have identified.
“They’ll share information on what they think needs to be done, and we’ll welcome input from everyone else on their thoughts,” Isaacson said. “Sometimes our staff, our students and our parents see things we don’t necessarily see, and even people who drive regularly past one of our school buildings can have some thoughts.”
Participants at each meeting will be assigned to a table for discussion with others sitting there.
“They’ll talk about what they feel needs to be done in those topics, and each table will come up with a list,” Isaacson said. “They’ll get to brainstorm ideas.”
Eventually, he said, each table’s list will be compiled into a single list and then each participant will be asked to identify his or her priorities.
Just to make sure everyone’s voice is heard, cards will be available at each meeting to anyone who wants to jot down their thoughts.
Isaacson said district officials do pay attention to the strategic plan.
“Most of the priorities from the previous plan have been completed,” he said.
Among those ideas are improving parking and improving exterior lighting at Vineland Elementary School; crack-sealing the parking lots at all campuses; repaving the road between De Soto Junior High School and the high school; adding parking to the Early Childhood Center; and replacing school buses, Isaacson said.
“Over the last five years, we have replaced 20 of the 34 buses in our fleet,” he added. “We’ve also added two school resource officers and conducted active-shooter training for our staff, which were identified as priorities. Now we need to identify where we go from here.”
Additional meetings will be held, all from 5:30-7 p.m., on the second Thursday of the month, at the following buildings:
■ Feb. 9, De Soto Junior High, 731 Amvets Drive.
■ March 9, Vineland Elementary, 650 Vineland School Road.
■ April 13, Athena Elementary, 3775 Athena School Road.
■ May 11, Early Childhood Center, 1812 Rock Road.
■ June 8, Central Office, 610 Vineland School Road.
Door prizes will be awarded at each meeting, and a “special giveaway” will be available to those who attend all six meetings.
After all the meetings are held, the information will be distilled into a comprehensive plan.
“I hope to have the plan available for the Board of Education to approve at its July meeting,” Isaacson said.
For information, call 636-586-1000.