GISD school board approves strategic plan for district

Gonzales ISD School board met for the regularly scheduled meeting Monday, Dec. 12, at the GISD Administration building. The board approved the GISD Mission, Vision, Beliefs, and Strategic Goal plan in a 7-0 vote.

Amanda Fullilove, the GISD director of federal programs, went over the plan with the board, stating that the district has been working on the strategic plan since September. During this time the district brought in over 75 community members, parents, staff and students to “identify defining moments of the district assess the current status of the district and complete a capacity audit regarding where the district needs to develop capacity to focus on the future.”
“From Sept. 19 to Oct. 5, we extended beyond the discovery team and engaged in focus group discussions where groups of parents, students and staff were able to provide feedback through virtual session. During this process, we received over 120 comments from parents, with 290 comments from staff and 40 comments from students,” Fullilove said.

The five year plan that GISD has dedicated is the school district’s commitment to “growing greatness.”

Fullilove said the proposed mission for the district is designed to create “meaningful learning experiences that inspire students to make an impact beyond themselves.”

“These proposed statements are built on the foundation of our beliefs and our values. The beliefs are we believe productive citizens move society forward. We believe student success results from meaningful learning experiences. We believe in the power of connection and that the active role of family and community, and student and staff relationships, generates positive student and staff outcomes,” Fullilove said.

GISD Superintendent Dr. Elmer Avellaneda said thousands of hours were put into this planning document.

“When you ask Gonzales, Texas for feedback, they're going to give it to you, and it's going to be honest. So I just want to thank our community for supporting us in this and helping us do this, and for the feedback,” Avellaneda said. “What we did was we invited the community and we listened to our community, and they told us exactly what to put in this document. That's the easy part. We did exactly what they wanted us to do. What they saw as a priority. What they saw as our vision, our mission, our values, and our beliefs.” Avellaneda added.

In other business, the board approved the following agenda items:

--approved the annual financial and compliance report for fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2022 and the engagement letter from Singleton, Clark and Company, PC for the 2023 Fiscal Year Audit.

--approved the purchase of a school bus and technology equipment.

--approval of GISD Education Foundation Grant Funding to be used for future grant disbursement.