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HARLINGEN — Nearly 10 years ago, the school district joined the community in embarking on a program that’s helped transform students’ educations.
Across the community, parents, students and teachers wanted the district to widen its focus on STEM learning, centering on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as part of a strategic plan.
In response, district officials developed several specialized academies including the UTRGV Harlingen Collegiate High School, Harlingen STEM2 Preparatory Academy, the Harlingen School of Health Professions and HCISD Early Childhood Academy.
“We have seen the power of strategic planning,” said Veronica Kortan, the district’s interim superintendent who’s coordinated the development of the district’s strategic plans. “We were able to provide opportunities for students who have a passion for them. All of our specialty academies offer smaller leaning communities. We wanted to make sure our entire district meets the needs of all of our students.”
Now, officials are launching the district’s new strategic plan aimed at partnering with the community to develop real-life educational experiences to better prepare students for careers.
“This strategic plan will focus on how we can expand the opportunities for our students,” Kortan said. “It’s a plan for the community, by the community. The beauty of the strategic plan is that it is a living document. It guides our work.”
Involving the community
In August 2022, officials began working with the community, gathering feedback from 4,000 residents including parents, teachers and students to develop the district’s new strategic plan, which the school board approved in February.
“I’m super excited about the plan,” board President Dr. Belinda Reininger said in an interview. “No one does strategic planning quite like HCISD. We involve the community. It’s a lot of input. That’s very unique. But beyond that, it’s about what we do. It inspires every decision, every step so we’re accountable as to what the stakeholders want. The board is united to support growth in strategic ways. The world keeps changing — and we’ve got to change, too.”
‘Driving force’
As teachers and students prepare to enter the new school year, the strategic plan will help guide incoming Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez, who’s set to take office Sept. 1 after the school board selected him last month as the finalist for the job following a national search.
“From my perspective, the strategic plan was done in tremendous fashion,” Gonzalez, who has served as the McAllen school district’s superintendent for eight years, said, noting officials developed the plan based on community input. “I’m excited about it. The plan will be a driving force.”
Beyond the classroom
The district’s new strategic plan, expected to guide the district through the next five to seven years, focuses on taking students “beyond the classroom,” Kortan said.
“The community wanted more focus on personal finance and entrepreneurship,” she said in an interview. “It’s an opportunity to inspire kids to do things they never thought possible.”
As part of the plan, officials will be working to develop partnerships with universities along with businesses such as banks, Kortan said.
“We’re going to look to our entire community to develop partnerships where our students can have experiences beyond the classroom,” she said.
Kortan said the plan will feature an entrepreneurship program aimed at guiding students who want to pursue business careers.
The program, she said, will help students learn to develop their own business plans.
“A lot of our kids have created ideas to solve a problem,” she said.
As the district evolves its strategic plan, officials might call for the development of more specialized academies, Kortan said.
That would depend on whether there’s “a need for an additional academy where we can focus on different pathways,” she said.
Main goals
In reviewing the community’s feedback, officials centered the new strategic plan around five main goals.
As part of the first goal, the plan focuses on “academic achievement and college and career readiness,” calling on the district to “implement research-based instructional practices for students with a concentration on students in special populations” while creating “learning opportunities for promoting a STEM-inspired culture of learning.”
While the plan’s second goal aims at developing “well-rounded graduates” through creation of a “coherent sequence of experiences” within the community “that will span across academics, athletics and the arts,” its third goal calls for development of a staff recruiting system to “ensure a systemic approach to recruitment, retention and refinement of talent at all levels of the organization.”
The plan’s forth goal centers around “family engagement,” aiming to “build trusting relationships with families and community agencies to develop and offer meaningful engagement opportunities that support student learning” while working to “identify and resolve barriers for families in connecting and communicating with the school and resources.”
