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MISSION — Sharyland ISD began last month working on a strategic plan the district says will guide its direction for the next five years when completed.
The district’s last five-year strategic plan covered 2016-2021.
The pandemic, Superintendent Maria Vidaurri said, delayed forming a new one.
In June, the district and consulting firm Moak Casey began formulating that plan, hosting a series of talks with students, residents and community members meant to gauge opinions and attitudes.
“You hate to keep talking about COVID, but things did shift a little bit,” Vidaurri said. “They shifted a little bit in education and in our community and in our students and in our parents, and we felt like this was a perfect time. It’s kind of been settling down a little bit, and we felt like this was a perfect time to reach out to our stakeholders and see what they like about what we’re doing, what we’re missing, how we can be better.”
At one of those meetings, held for business people and civic leaders on June 20, attendees wrote down what they perceived as strengths and weaknesses of the district in groups before talking about their opinions with the room.
Brighter points included the district’s legacy as a high-performing, high-achieving district with a tradition of being so.
Vidaurri said even those positive opinions prompt some deep thought for the plan.
“What do we really mean by tradition?” she said. “Are we making sure that our traditions are aligned with the shift and the movement and the progression that our district should be moving in and taking?”
Another positive point, Vidaurri said, was the meetings themselves, which she said were well-attended and constructive.
“We’re just really grateful. It’s hard to be vulnerable like that,” she said. “But it was a really good feeling, it felt good to have people care about us and help us to be better.”
Attendees did point out areas they thought could be better: concerns at the meeting included aging facilities, district communication and the prospect of open enrollment — with attendees speaking both for and against the last topic.
Enrollment struggles have occasionally prompted the district to flirt with the prospect of open enrollment over the last few years, though trustees have generally viewed it as too drastic a move to make.
Vidaurri said there seemed to be more pro-open enrollment voices at the meetings than she expected — though the anti-crowd were staunchly against it. She also noted the district’s enrollment struggles seem to not be particularly well known by all in the community.
“People just think that people are moving to Sharyland and we’re filling up, but even with new apartments, new developments, they’re just shifting from one place to another within our zones,” she said. “But it’s not really new students. So people just don’t really understand.”
The district, it turns out, may have been misunderstanding its residents as well.
Vidaurri said info gathered for the plan shows over 50% of residents in the district have no children enrolled in it. She called that statistic a shock, one she says could be playing a role in the district’s struggles to get a bond passed.
Two bond pushes at the district in recent years have failed, the most recent by a razor thin margin.
Vidaurri said the district likely misunderstood the voters.
“So when you think about bonds not passing — well, we’re not selling it to people who have no kids in our school district and really explaining to them the why, why it’s needed,” she said.
According to Vidaurri, administrators and consultants will review information gathered and hammer it into some sort of actionable plan that aligns with board goals over the next few months. She said the district will likely be looking at a final plan in October or November.
