WCS Strategic Planning Spread: 2021-25

Table of Contents

3 Superintendent’s Letter

4 Mission: Our Fundamental Purpose

4

Engagement: The Voice of the School

Community

5 Pillars: Our Four Primary Objectives

6

Oversight: Our Plan for Continuous

Recalibration

8 Strategic Plan Pillar: Empathy

12 Strategic Plan Pillar: Adaptability

16 Strategic Plan Pillar: Inclusivity

22 Strategic Plan Pillar: Experience

26 Conclusion

27 Glossary of Terms

2

2021-2025 Strategic Plan

WARSAW COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

SUPERINTENDENT’S LETTER

To the Tiger Community,

Ways you can stay

involved.

It is because of you, our committed school

community, that we’re able to do great things

for our students, families, teachers, and staff.

Here are four ways to stay involved over the

next five years:

• Spread the word. Share our strategic plan

with those around you: your family, friends,

neighbors, coworkers, bowling team, fishing

buddies—really, we mean anyone! We want

everyone to know about our goals for the

next five years so that we can continue to

build and strengthen our school community.

• Participate in our curriculum and

programming. As part of this strategic plan,

we’ll be developing mentoring programs,

job shadowing experiences, community

service classes, and more! If you or your

organization can make a great partner, we’d

love to have you.

• Find ways to bring our four pillars

into your own home or organization.

As an extension of our curriculum, we’ll

be outlining ways that parents, families,

businesses, and organizations can reinforce

empathy, adaptability, inclusivity, and

experience for our students. The more

we can align our efforts, the more we can

ensure success.

We at Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) are thankful for a

community of families, businesses, students and staff who

continually contribute to the enhancement of our educational

programs, leading to the betterment of our community and

beyond. WCS has been serving our local community through the

partnership of education for 176 years. This year in particular has

been a challenge, one like none of us have ever experienced; a

year of learning, rethinking and working together as never before.

However, the challenges of this year have not stopped us from

excitedly planning, hoping and dreaming for the future of WCS.

Over the past several months, through a collaborative effort,

teams of community members, business leaders, administrators,

board members, students and staff have met to develop a

vision and next steps for WCS through the establishment of a

strategic plan encompassing our mission. I am excited about this

strategic plan and where it will lead WCS over next five years.

This plan will allow us to build on the excellent progress we have

been making by providing clearly defined and focused goals in

the areas of Experience, Inclusivity, Adaptability and Empathy.

Objectives, strategies and action plans have been created to

assist administrators, teachers and staff with accomplishing these

strategic goals, as well as benchmarks metrics and indicators that

will allow us to measure our progress and success.

This strategic plan reflects and encompasses our WCS core

values and the mission. Our mission is to inspire and equip all

students to continuously acquire and apply knowledge and skills

while pursuing their dreams and enriching the lives of others.

Again, I am grateful for a community that is willing to see the

potential of our students and is willing in to invest in that potential.

I thank you in advance for your continued support of WCS and our

journey over the next five years as we watch this plan unfold.

David Hoffert

• Continue to make your voices heard. We’ll

be asking for feedback and ideas from our

stakeholders throughout the duration of this

strategic plan. By doing so, we can measure

the effectiveness of our efforts, and can pivot

based on what we learn.

DAVID HOFFERT

SUPERINTENDENT



3

Mission: Our Fundamental Purpose

Warsaw Community Schools is dedicated to achieving and living our

mission: to inspire and equip all students to continuously acquire and

apply knowledge and skills while pursuing their dreams and enriching

the lives of others.

Everything we do is centered around our students. Their success is our

success.

Engagement:

The Voice of

the School

Community

As a public school district spanning a 25x35

mile range in Kosciusko County, WCS educates

7,000 students and employs approximately

1,200 staff across 13 schools. Our school

community, however, isn’t bound by the walls of

these schools. Parents, guardians, community

partners, employers, and legislators all play a

vital role in preparing students for the future.

We continue to welcome all of our many

stakeholders—inside and outside of our school

buildings—acknowledging them as co-creators

in the strategic planning process.

2019-2020 COMMUNITY LISTENING

These co-creators are the many diverse

stakeholders who’ve shared their personal

insights, lived expertise, and passion for

a brighter future throughout six months of

community listening. Through their ideas and

insights, Warsaw Community Schools has

identified four distinct strategic plan pillars

and a desired outcome for each. The desired

outcomes serve as our shared destination,

one that we will continually and intentionally

advance toward throughout the next five years.

4



Pillars: Our Four Primary

Objectives

These four strategic plan pillars will drive our efforts toward achieving our

mission for our students. Each pillar serves as a primary objective and aligns

with our mission statement. All pillars also contain a specific set of strategies

and actions that advance WCS toward our desired outcome. These are

followed by key performance metrics that will measure progress over the five

years of the plan.

Empathy: students will foster the ability to compassionately understand and

share the feelings of another person.

Adaptability: students will develop a set of abilities that enable them to deal

effectively with the demands and challenges of life.

Inclusivity: schools will cultivate inclusive learning environments—through

policies, programs, practices, and procedures—that welcome, celebrate, and

empower all students.

Experience: schools will provide hands-on learning experiences that have

real-world implications—bringing experiences into the classroom and

challenging students to go outside of their comfort zones.



5

Oversight: Our Plan for

Continuous Recalibration

WCS is committed to continuous improvement, managing change based

on student, staff, and community feedback, as well as local and national

conversations. Stakeholder feedback loops are built in semiannually to

ensure we can recalibrate early and often. In addition to these feedback

loops, WCS will be assessing each strategy’s impact by reviewing key

performance metrics yearly, while implementation teams will be monitoring

each strategy’s status by reviewing progress indicators monthly.

• Every fall, the Guiding Team, Strategic Leads, and Implementation

Teams will convene to assess all strategies according to key

performance metrics and progress indicators*. Based on both

performance and progress, all Implementation Teams will make

strategic recommendations to ensure each pillar’s desired outcome

is reached. The Guiding Team will forward recommendations for

improvements or adjustments to the school board and superintendent

for approval and implementation.

• Every spring, Strategic Leads will meet with Community

Ambassadors. These Community Ambassadors will act as liaisons

for WCS’s stakeholder groups and are responsible for elevating the

voice of their respective communities. They will provide feedback on

the resonance and impact of strategies and should collaborate with

Strategic Leads on ideas for increasing partnerships and stakeholder

engagement. Strategic Leads will share ideas to the Guiding Team

for improvements or adjustments, seeking board and superintendent

approval when necessary.

• Monthly, Strategic Leads will meet with their Implementation teams

to review the status of action items from previous meetings, as

well as any new action items. They will be evaluating movement

based on progress indicators, identifying key issues, roadblocks,

and adjustments. Finally, they will assign next steps to ensure

accountability.

• Quarterly, the Guiding Team and Strategic Leads will review each

pillar’s movement across strategies, reviewing action items and

progress indicators. As an extension of monthly meetings, these

teams will share their previously identified key issues, roadblocks, and

adjustments, making decisions on how to pivot accordingly.

*The strategic plan highlights key performance metrics, and progress indicators can be

found in each pillar’s implementation plans.

2021-2025 STRATEGIC PLAN OVERSIGHT PROCESS



7

STRATEGIC PLAN PILLAR

Empathy

Our students will compassionately consider the lives

of others. They will acknowledge others’ feelings,

emotions, and experiences as valuable. As a result, all

individuals will be able to understand, relate, and/or

be moved to action by experiences and perspectives

outside their own.

Rationale

• A student’s capacity for empathy impacts their ability to understand others, to listen to and assess multiple

perspectives, and to build stronger ideas through collaboration.

• Personal empathy is increasingly relevant: employers recognize the need for skilled person-to-person

communication, parents and teachers prioritize development of the whole child, and our complex and

technology-driven world leaves students and adults longing for connection.

• Students recognize that they are at their best when they deeply understand others inside their classrooms,

community, and the larger world.

Strategies & Actions

Develop Shared Understanding

Define, teach, and adopt common language and

vocabulary surrounding empathy.

♦ Develop and scaffold K-12 grade-level, empathy-specific

common vocabulary with visual supports in English and

Spanish.

♦ Identify empathy-specific teaching strategies and lessons using

the IDOE SEL Competencies and CASEL SEL Competencies.

♦ Integrate district-wide empathy-specific lessons K-12 into all

content areas, such as social awareness, self-awareness, and

relationship skills.

♦ Communicate common empathy-specific vocabulary,

scaffolding, and instructional implementation to key

stakeholders.

Model Empathetic Behaviors

Provide ongoing training to all staff on modeling

empathy in the classroom.

♦ Provide staff training in Emotional Intelligence, Anti-bullying,

Mental Health and First Aid, Trauma-Informed Care, and

Trauma-Invested Practices.

• Empower teachers to use instructional time to focus on

empathy-related skill building (such as social awareness,

self-awareness, and relationship skills).

♦ Provide staff guidance for professional development and

continuing education that enhances the understanding and

implementation of key empathic behaviors.

♦ Develop a pathway for teachers and staff that models how to

attend to the needs of the whole child and apply empathy skills

8



within the classroom.

♦ Provide a student speaker series for all grade levels on

intrinsic and interpersonal growth.

Develop and Strengthen Active Listening Skills

Develop students’ ability to observe, remember, and

respond in ways that improve mutual understanding

and trust.

♦ Provide teachers with a menu of empathy-based resources

(books, videos, personal stories), and acknowledge action

steps taken in the examples that reflect active listening.

♦ Teach students what active listening looks like and sounds like,

and offer opportunities for students to practice.

♦ Celebrate displays of empathy by sharing district-wide success

stories of students who model empathy.

Provide Uniform Opportunities for Growth

Embed social-emotional learning and anti-bullying into

K-12 instruction.

♦ Provide daily opportunities for students to participate in an

empathy-focused morning/advisory meeting (student-tostudent

and teacher-to-student).

♦ Provide grade-level specific parent nights to discuss empathy

and interpersonal relationship skills.

♦ Provide ongoing education and opportunities for students to

have conversations about anti-bullying, reducing stigma in

mental health, and overall wellness.

Offer Community Service Courses

To instill a sense of servanthood, partner with

nonprofits and/or small businesses that serve others.

♦ Create curricular opportunities for students to serve by

partnering with community agencies on course work.

♦ Provide students with mentorship opportunities that focus on

modeling selfless servanthood.

♦ Connect parents/community with resources that focus on

empathy-specific parenting skills and strategies such as socialawareness,

connection, collaboration, and self-awareness.

♦ Provide students, parents/caregivers, and all stakeholders

shared opportunities for civic engagement in the community.



9

Key Performance Metrics

Key performance metrics are used to assess the impact of each strategy. These metrics will remain the same

throughout the duration of this strategic plan. WCS obtained initial baseline metrics in 2022, after which each

pillar team created their goal metrics for 2025. WCS will measure these yearly in order to assess performance

around strategy.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS FOR EMPATHY PILLAR 2022 (BASELINE) 2025 (GOAL)

Develop Shared Understanding

Teachers who report an increase in knowledge after

trainings on student character development and empathy

43.78% said

somewhat

30.85% said a great

deal

40% to report

somewhat

50% to report a great

deal

Students who are able to properly identify what empathy

does or does not look like in practice

74.68% 90%

Model Empathetic Behaviors

Teachers who report they use varied methods of empathymodeling

in the classroom

69.30% 90% elementary

75% secondary

Students who report there is a safe adult who listens to

what they say

44.68% agree

44.99% strongly

agree

20% agree

80% strongly agree

Develop and Strengthen Active Listening Skills

Students who report having submitted (or hear) empathyrelated

stories to be featured in social media or newsletters

(bulletin boards, classroom or building shout outs, etc.)

10.5% said yes 30% (by 2023)

60% (by 2024)

90% (by 2025)

10



We need to go deeper into

empathy—really listening.

WCS STUDENT

Provide Uniform Opportunities for Growth

Teachers who provide more than one empathy-based

resource (reset stations, calm classroom, kimochis, etc.) in

their classroom or building.

54.33% 90% elementary

65% secondary

Students who report they have positive activities that help

their mental and physical wellness

49.05% agree

36.8% strongly agree

40% agree

60% strongly agree

Students who report that they feel safe at school:

playground, classroom, cafeteria, hallways, restrooms,

locker rooms, bus)

47.92% agree

27.88% strongly

agree

50% agree

50% strongly agree

100% in each location

Offer Community Service Classes

Community partners who report seeing empathetic behavior

among student volunteer groups and service classes

50% agree


40% agree

30% strongly agree

Parents who report having participated in empathy-driven

book studies, classes, and events

22.49% said yes 40%



11


Adaptability

Our students will own and apply life skills to pursue

their dreams in an ever-changing world. Students will

know how to overcome challenges, problem-solve, and

embrace adversity. Our schools, teachers, and culture

will value productive struggle, perseverance, and

flexibility.

Rationale

• The world we prepare our students for may change at a moment’s notice—adaptability benefits our students

personally and professionally by encouraging resilience as they surmount challenges we may not have

expected even months ago.

• While goals and roles may change, we know that sustainable success will be achieved through a focus on

problem-solving as individuals and teams.


Develop a Life Skills Curriculum and Instructional

Delivery

Clearly define, articulate, and teach adaptable life and

workforce skills.

♦ Gather input from community members to inform curriculum

goals and skills (including personal finance*, risk taking,

problem solving, goal setting, perseverance, communication,

teamwork, etc.).

♦ Vertically align skills combining technical and emotional

learning.

♦ Organize and assess what training our teachers need to

implement a new curriculum.

♦ Analyze curriculum resources and identify community

partnerships; work with community partners to build

curriculum.

Incorporate Different Types of Feedback

Analyze current grading practices and identify ways

to use different types of feedback (with or without

grades) to discern students’ levels of understanding

and comprehension and to foster a growth mindset.

♦ Analyze current grading and feedback practices.

♦ Develop staff expertise in types of feedback, including the

purposes, benefits, and best applications of each type.

♦ Develop staff expertise in how different types of feedback tie

into a growth mindset.

♦ Communicate to staff and implement a plan on grading and

feedback expectations.

12



Encourage Student-Led Learning

Create classroom environments where students

identify and determine the “problems” they are

inspired to solve and the “processes” they use to

reach a solution.

♦ Analyze the current use of student choice in problems and

processes.

♦ Create professional development opportunities for projectbased

learning, emphasizing lessons focused on real world,

practical work.

♦ Create community partnerships within schools where partners

are asked to collaborate with students to identify problems.

Shift Culture & Climate

Foster a growth mindset where students, staff,

parents, and the larger school community

embrace learning through productive struggle and

perseverance.

♦ Highlight successfully implemented growth mindset programs

by sharing with other buildings or through WCS social media.

♦ Challenge buildings to incorporate a growth mindset and to

add goals to 90-day plans (for example, data walls on schoolwide

goals).

♦ Pool resources and ideas that involve students in this process

to share with staff (for example, how students track data,

programs used).

♦ Focus on sharing individual stories with students at a districtwide

level (for example, interactions with outside/motivational

speakers).

*Personal finance classes (equipping high school students with

skills necessary to manage personal finances; offering mini

economy activities to elementary students) are in the process of

being created and implemented. These classes may serve as the

model for the larger life skills curriculum.

We want to make

our own mistakes.

WCS STUDENT



13





around strategy.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS FOR ADAPTABILITY PILLAR 2022 (BASELINE) 2025 (GOAL)

Develop a Life Skills Curriculum and Instructional Delivery

Parents who report they have input in Warsaw Community

Schools’ life skills curriculum

18.12% agree


50% agree or

strongly agree

Teachers who report having access to resources needed to

teach their students identified life skills

51.08% agree


80% agree or

strongly agree

Incorporate Different Types of Feedback

Teachers who report giving students feedback in several

different ways throughout the week

58.6% agree

34.41% strongly

agree

35% agree

60% strongly agree

Students who report that getting good grades is the only

way they feel successful

29.49% agree


Less than 45% agree

or strongly agree

Students who report that talking to their teachers helps

them know what to do next

55.04% agree


90% of students

agree or strongly

agree

Encourage Student-Led Learning

Students who report using real-world problems in their class

48.11% agree


90% of students

agree or strongly

agree

Teachers who report implementing project-based learning

in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world

and personally meaningful projects

49.19% agree

16.22% strongly

agree

40% agree

30% strongly agree

14



Good communication

is such a differentiator.

EMPLOYER

Shift Culture & Climate

Teachers who report learning from others in their building

about growth mindset

61.62% agree

20.54% strongly

agree

90% agree or

strongly agree

Students who report participating in setting their own goals

49.06% agree

35.75% strongly

agree

90% agree or

strongly agree



15


Inclusivity

Our students will thrive academically and socially in a

sustainable culture of belonging and empowerment.

Members of Warsaw Community Schools will recognize

and honor each other as we celebrate our unique,

diverse experiences.

Rationale

• While “belonging” looks different for each student, all teachers and parents desire a place for each child — a

dependable community of individuals that serve as a source of inspiration, accountability, mentorship, and

more. Inclusion is a prerequisite to belonging and must be built intentionally across classrooms, communities,

and the city.

• Students want to connect with each other beyond their own school building, while community and civic

organizations wish for increased student involvement.


Hire & Train Equitably

Ensure that our hiring and training practices

acknowledge and represent a variety of cultures,

ethnicities and perspectives.

♦ Recruit and hire a diverse and highly qualified workforce

representative of our student body.

• Assess current recruitment practices.

• Focus on recruitment fairs that offer a diverse pool of

candidates and ensure that the recruitment team is

composed of people from a variety of perspectives.

• Develop a marketing campaign to bring diverse

candidates to the community.

• Work with local industry talent recruiters to connect with

diverse candidates.

♦ For onboarding, develop system-wide virtual training for all

new hires to support inclusivity efforts.

♦ Create or highlight existing programs to retain faculty such

as social committee mixers, ongoing learning opportunities,

professional mentoring and support, welcome events, and

housing opportunities near campus.

♦ Create an exit interview protocol to understand why teachers

leave the district and use the information to make additional

action steps.

Recognize and Appreciate Diverse Cultures and

Traditions

Offer opportunities to help staff understand diverse

cultures and traditions in order to increase belonging

and acceptance.

♦ Offer opportunities for staff that build cultural understanding

and inclusive behaviors through acceptance of different

perspectives.

♦ Offer opportunities for students each year that build cultural

understanding and inclusive behaviors through acceptance of

different perspectives.

16



• Infuse daily lessons with multicultural reading resources

with support from the school libraries.

• Audit school libraries to ensure that reading materials

exist that appeal to a diverse student body and ensure

reading materials that are age appropriate in Spanish are

available. Likewise, audit classroom toys, resources and

classroom libraries.

♦ Develop a speaker series aimed at understanding multiple

perspectives and experiences.

• Engage with speakers on a deeper level through

workshop experiences both before and after the event.

• Provide opportunities for students to share their

experiences in conjunction with speaker series events.

Build & Strengthen Relationships

Extend invitations, establish trust, and warmly

welcome new faces into the school community.

♦ Identify advisory council members who can establish

connections between the school and communities.

♦ Capitalize on existing events to foster relationships and

encourage mission-aligned dialogue (family/parent nights,

Coffee and Conversation with EL families, school open

houses).

♦ Connect with community members of all backgrounds and

provide opportunities for them to share their role (large and

small) as members of our community (within strategic planning

events, task force work, initiative teams, clubs and field trips,

as well as classroom speaking or volunteer opportunities).

♦ Implement welcoming signage for all buildings in many

languages.

Everyone wants

to be part of

something bigger.

To belong.

NONPROFIT LEADER



17

Leverage Virtual Mentorship

Involve racially diverse community members in a

variety of in-person and/or online opportunities for

mentorship, connecting them with students who need

positive role models that they can relate to.

♦ Partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters to create pairings to

mentor students with a focus on diversity.

• Educate community and WCS employees on

opportunities that exist to connect with students on a

deeper level.

• Highlight existing support systems within WCS (Step-one,

JAG, JROTC, family groups, HOPE, STAR, graduation

coaching, student ambassadors etc).

Navigate Crucial Conversations

Empower students to be active participants in

enriching the lives of others.

♦ Work with students to understand what they perceive as

barriers to a more inclusive school environment; engage them

in problem-solving.

♦ Teach students how to have civil discourse.

♦ Teach students conflict management strategies.

♦ Offer opportunities within the school day to give back to the

community (United Way, Feed My Starving Children and Riley

Children’s Hospital, food drives, etc.).

Encourage Dialogue & Storytelling

Create spaces for students and the school community

to celebrate what makes them unique.

♦ Host and promote in-person community nights at culturallysignificant

locations as well as field trips to sites beyond

Warsaw.

• Identify culturally significant venues with sensitivity to the

individual/family’s sense of safe-space and awareness of

work schedules.

♦ Develop a webpage for Inclusivity initiatives, where community

members can find motivational content and engage with the

topic.

♦ Create more opportunities for students to share their

experiences (such as EL profiles at the high school).

♦ Encourage debate and social discourse opportunities within

the curriculum.

Ensure that Students Have Access to Multiple

Cultural Perspectives within the Curriculum

Use inclusivity as a lens to make curricular decisions

and inform teaching practices.

♦ Incorporate multiple perspectives in WCS curriculum.

♦ Create a rubric for vetting new curriculum to ensure students

study texts from a diverse range of authors and perspectives.

♦ Develop instructional best practices to incorporate cultural

sensitivity and presenting multiple perspectives.

♦ Create safe and supportive instructional environments and

curriculum to increase engagement of diverse students.

18







around strategy.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS FOR INCLUSIVITY PILLAR 2022 (BASELINE) 2025 (GOAL)

Hire and Train Equitably

Students who report seeing teachers, coaches, and staff

members who look like them

38.12% agree

18.23% strongly

agree

60% agree or

strongly agree

Teachers who report utilizing an official or unofficial

mentor in their professional setting (or who report feeling

supported by a team or mentors in the district)

56% said yes 65%

Recognize and Appreciate Diverse Cultures and Traditions

Teachers who report having awareness of best teaching

methods to meet needs of racially/culturally diverse students

59.2% agree


65% agree

20% strongly agree

Build and Strengthen Relationships

Parents who report they have attended an event at their

child’s school in the past three years

91.68% 93%

Students who report their family cares about how they are

doing in school

39.83% agree


45% agree

55% strongly agree

Middle and High School students who report that

multilingual signage is present at their school

61.22% agree


65% agree

20% strongly agree

Parents who report multilingual signage is present at their

child’s school

42.47% said yes 50%



19

Leverage Virtual Mentorship

Middle and High School students who report having a

mentor (in or out of school)

46.37% said yes 55%

Teachers who report their students have an opportunity

to engage in mentorship with mentors who mirror their

demographic

33.91% agree


40% agree

5% strongly agree

Navigate Crucial Conversations

Middle and High School students who report seeing

barriers to students feeling included in their school

53.3% agree


60% agree

20% strongly agree

Middle and High School students who report knowing how

to have conversations using conflict management

62.35% agree


82% agree or

strongly agree

Students who report they know how to solve conflict

64.44% agree

23.64% strongly

agree

92% agree or

strongly agree

Students who report feeling welcome in their school

55.3% agree


80% agree or

strongly agree

Encourage Dialogue and Storytelling

Middle and High School students who report submitting

stories to be featured in WCS communications

7.19% said yes 10% increase

Ensure that Students Have Access to Multiple Cultural Perspectives within the Curriculum

Teachers who report knowing how to build cultural

understanding in their classroom

66.29% agree

16% strongly agree

90% agree or

strongly agree

Middle and High School students who report that their

curriculum incorporates multiple perspectives

61.16% agree


80% agree or

strongly agree

20



I want a family

environment at school.

WCS STUDENT


Experience

Through experiences both inside and outside of the

Warsaw community, our students will gain applied skills

to confidently pursue goals and successfully advance in

their focused pathway.

Rationale

• Real-life experiences are paramount to students’ understanding of how to navigate a global economy, build

soft skills, and gain crucial workforce development exposure. While the classroom is still home base, all

stakeholders value real-life experiences outside the school.

• Students are eager for hands-on learning and exposure to new cultures, resulting in growth not only as a

future workforce contributor, but also as an active and compassionate neighbor.


Connect Students with Professionals

Engage students and professionals in workplacebased

discussions and demonstrations.

♦ Recruit and employ individuals that actively promote our

community to our students and connect them to hands-on

learning experiences.

♦ Launch a local professional series that highlights community

members who are passionate about their career choices and

transparent about their journeys.

♦ Connect fifth and sixth grade students with community

partners for job shadowing.

Create a Progression of Work-Based Learning

Provide sequential experiential learning opportunities

that build and expand as a student progresses from

Kindergarten through senior year in high school.

♦ Create a Work-based learning taskforce with educators and

industry partners.

♦ Develop partnerships to include K-12 options for work-based

learning.

♦ Start working with K & 1st grade teachers to build Work-Based

Learning experiences into a pathway portfolios.

♦ Connect all teachers to industry professionals moving through

the pathways offered in Kosciusko.

22



Create Transparency with Pathway Portfolios

Document each student’s selected pathway in a

portfolio, including relevant courses, work-based

learning, co-curricular activities, and athletics.

♦ Build an online portfolio for students and parents to view. This

portfolio can add everything from work-based learning, relative

courses, and extracurricular activities.

♦ Collaborate with teachers on the best methods to build

portfolios.

♦ Instruct high school students on how to best leverage their

portfolios, providing examples of when to use, how to talk

about their work, and its relevance to opportunities after high

school.

Create Incentives for Students to Pursue

Opportunities

Inspire students to pursue real-world experiences.

♦ Connect students with in-person and virtual opportunities to

travel outside of the immediate Warsaw community.

♦ Partner with Warsaw employers to develop a work ethic

certification at every grade level.

♦ Generate a scholarship of higher education for all qualifying

students.

We want to

experience the

world.

WCS STUDENT



23





around strategy.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS FOR EXPERIENCE PILLAR 2022 (BASELINE) 2025 (GOAL)

Connect Students with Professionals

Elementary students who report outside speakers come to their

class

85.07% 90%

Middle School and High School students who have reported

participating in a career exploration field trip (virtual or in-person)

41.82% 85%

Middle School and High School students who report having

participated in job shadowing or work-based learning

41.79% 65%

Create a Progression of Work-Based Learning

Teachers who report routinely integrating their curriculum into

multiple career pathways

51.19% agree

13.04% strongly

agree

65% agree

20% strongly

agree

Teachers who report routinely integrating professionals into

classroom experiences

17.86% agree

5.95% strongly

agree

50% agree and

strongly agree

Create Transparency with Pathway Portfolios

Parents who report they have a solid understanding of career

pathway portfolios and could explain it to someone else

51.19% agree

13.69% strongly

agree

85% agree and

strongly agree

Middle School and High School Students who report utilizing a

pathway portfolio to learn about opportunities after graduation

58.62% 75%

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We have to create the

capacity for creativity.

WCS PARENT

Create Incentives for Students to Pursue Opportunities

Students who report they have opportunities to travel outside of

Warsaw (virtually or in-person)

85.28% 95%



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Conclusion

By creating the strategic plan in collaboration with the school

community, we can ensure that our students will be prepared to

succeed in the world they live in now as well as an ever-evolving

future. They will learn and foster the skills needed to be globally

competitive learners, and will do so in a school environment

where they can individually and collectively discover their value.

It will take commitment from parents, partners, and professionals

to assure our students’ academic and social success. As a unified

community investing in our students, we will see the cascading

economic and civic benefits as we advance this strategic plan.

26



Glossary of

Terms

Action: specific tasks or tactics needed to accomplish each

strategy, usually short- or mid-term in nature

Active Listening: communication technique that requires

the listener fully concentrate, understand, respond and then

remember what is being said

Community Engagement: proactive involvement of

stakeholders in school district priorities and partnerships

Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of

another

Desired Outcome: a shared vision of success for each pillar

that the Strategic Planning team and Warsaw community is

working to realize

Key Performance Metric: defined way to measure the impact

of each strategy

Pillars: the overarching objectives of the WCS strategic plan

(empathy, adaptability, inclusion, experience). Because all

pillars are centered around the success of WCS students,

there will naturally be some overlap

Progress Indicator: defined ways to assess the status of each

strategy

Rationale: statements that are research based and answer the

question, “Why is this strategy important in practice?’

Strategy: major initiatives to achieve each pillar, usually longterm

in nature. Strategies may be completely new, deliberate

shifts in direction, or build on existing WCS priorities



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28 This strategic plan was created in partnership with


WCS Strategic Planning Spread: 2021-25

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