The East Baton Rouge Parish School System began rewriting its current Strategic Plan in earnest on April 4, when more than 230 participants took part in 20 different focus groups over a three-day period. These participants included community and business leaders, members of the faith-based community, parents, students, teachers, East Baton Rouge Parish School System staff and School Board members.

Participants were asked to share their thoughts about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the public School System. Information collected during those focus groups currently is being used as a basis for the new Strategic Plan.

At the same time, the district implemented an extensive community outreach plan in an effort to gather as much input from the public as soon as possible for this process. This included planned media advertisements, letters to newspaper editors, radio and television interviews, automated phone calls from the district and information contained in the district’s newsletter.  The emphasis on outreach resulted in several print editorials encouraging public involvement in the process. In addition, a survey was placed, and remains, on the district web page.

To help with the important undertaking of rewriting the current Strategic Plan, the EBR-Committee for Educational Excellence was formed. This Committee, a coalition of more than 25 representatives from several segments of the Baton Rouge community, currently is helping the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and district officials craft a new Strategic Plan for the School System. Committee members met for the first time on Tuesday, May 17.

During the June 14 meeting, Committee members discussed and agreed on the bold goal that would drive the Strategic Plan. The bold goal states that “The East Baton Rouge Parish school system will be a top 10 Louisiana district by 2020, building innovative and globally-competitive educational choice for all families.”

In addition, six broad objectives for the Strategic Plan, community and parental involvement; governance/financial efficiency/accountability; culture and safety/school climate and human capital; early childhood education; neighborhood schooling/school choice; and academic expectations, were announced, and subcommittees were formed. 

Chairs and co-chairs for the subcommittees were identified and tasked with scheduling smaller meetings to gather community input related to these broad objectives.  Between July 6 and August 8, more than 20 subcommittee meetings were held across the parish to gather input from members of the community after the broad objectives were identified.  The purpose of the meetings was to gather as much public input as possible in order to create tactics and measures related to the six broad objectives.

These findings from the subcommittees were presented during the Committee meetings held on August 9 and August 16.

Members of the EBR - Committee for Educational Excellence met on October 27, to review documents and identify priorities related to the rewriting of a Strategic Plan for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. At this time, the first rough draft of the Strategic Plan was released.

On December 13, the final draft of the Strategic Plan was released. This document will be presented to the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board at their regular December Board meeting.

Since the beginning of the journey to rewrite the Strategic Plan, the process has been proactive and transparent. More than 45 public meetings have been held in various locations throughout the parish, and the community outreach effort has led to more than 635 individuals actively participating in this important process thus far. 

The process of revising the current Strategic Plan has allowed both internal and external stakeholders the opportunity to help guide the district’s educational philosophy, set targets for student achievement and define the School System’s overall operational focus for the next three to five years.

As we progress with the development of a new Strategic Plan, we will report our progress to the community in a timely manner. Community members are invited to participate in the process by clicking the link on this page and sharing their opinions on how our work is progressing.