School Improvement & Strategic Plan

Goal Statement: Mason Public Schools will cultivate an innovative teaching and learning community to improve educational outcomes for all students and prepare them to become active and engaged citizens.

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will provide all prekindergarten-12th grade students with instruction and assessments that are aligned to standards, rigorous, and evidence based.

Implementation:

• Ensure horizontal and vertical alignment prekindergarten-12th grade across all instructional areas.
• Provide multiple modes of assessment opportunities that inform instruction.
• Focus on consistent use of evidence based Tier 1 instructional strategies to deepen learning.
• Implement equitable grading practices that measure learning of each standard and separate non-achievement factors from content knowledge.

Objective 2: Mason Public Schools will provide all prekindergarten-12th grade students with experiences that are authentic, relevant, and focused on personalized learning.

Implementation:

• Build partnerships with the community, businesses, alumni, and post-secondary institutions (ex. internships, job shadowing, mentoring, career fairs, etc.).
• Apply learning to real-world situations, issues, and future career pathways.
• Ensure all students and families have equitable access to the various opportunities available to students in order to reach their highest potential and engage as global citizens.

Objective 3: Mason Public Schools will build a collaborative culture based on the premise that we are all learners working toward continued growth and improvement.

Implementation:

• Empower teachers and students to take risks, try new strategies, learn from one another, and embrace challenges, thereby creating a culture of courage and creativity.
• Create a safe and welcoming learning environment where all people feel included, valued, and respected (ex. environment, curriculum materials, extra-curricular/clubs, etc. that are inclusive of all groups of students).

Goal Statement: Mason Public Schools will proactively focus on robust and bold practices that connect students to their learning in order to prioritize and provide a barrier-free, successful education.

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will build an intentional culture that generates systems and strategies to increase authentic engagement by promoting positive perspectives toward self and others that will establish healthy relationships.

Implementation:

• Improve access for students and staff to behavioral and social emotional supports at all three tiers.
• Refine systematic Social Emotional Learning programming throughout the district.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive school counseling program prekindergarten-12th grade, addressing the mental health, social emotional, and personal needs of students.

Objective 2: Mason Public Schools will build structural support systems and strategies that proactively identify and address individual and collective student needs equitably.

Implementation:

• Review and formalize the district’s Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS).
• Formalize procedures for supporting students, including information for families on how to connect with resources inside and outside of the district, to address various inequities.

Objective 3: Mason Public Schools will build leadership opportunities, cultural awareness, and community partnerships that will provide students and staff with a platform of engagement in 21st century learning.

Implementation:

• Update, develop, and implement media literacy programs throughout the district, prekindergarten-12th grade.
• Understand and support community diversity and culture, including continued equity and inclusion efforts.
• Develop and implement service-based learning environments to increase student engagement and provide students, prekindergarten-12th grade, the opportunity to give back to the community.

Goal Statement 1: Mason Public Schools will attract a larger and more diverse candidate pool for positions. 

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will promote/advertise opportunities to a larger and more diverse audience

Implementation:

• Develop formal advertising (social media, traditional media).
• Involve a greater variety of staff members in recruitment and outreach efforts.
• Reach a wider local audience in order to obtain a greater number of applicants.
• Build a database of candidate sources and contact each with specific opportunities.
• Remove barriers for applicants and improve ease of applying.

Objective 2: Mason Public Schools will use ‘Share our Story’ in recruitment efforts.

Implementation: 

• Emphasize the positives of Mason Public Schools in advertisement of opportunities.
• Include district/building videos in posting and on social media and job opportunities websites.
• Include "About Mason" section in all postings with information about:
  • Safety/Security/School Resource Officer
  • Building improvements
  • Developmental opportunities
  • All benefits offered, by position
  • Staff supports
  • A realistic job preview and description of teammates in postings

Goal Statement 2: Mason Public Schools will retain talent through efforts to build a system of staff supports.

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will build a culture of mutual support with staff.

Implementation:

• Emphasize and reward a culture of collaboration.
  • Explore "Culture Coaching".
  • Succeed together (de-emphasize internal competition).
  • Operate as a School District, versus a district of schools.
  • Develop action plan based on survey feedback.
• Identify areas of emphasis for Nice Job Notes, recognize collaboration.
• Build commonality across buildings/departments regarding positive activities for staff. (spirit days, sunshine committees, sharing ideas across Lead team, etc.)

Goal Statement 3: Mason Public Schools will develop staff to better serve students and improve the employee experience.

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will utilize available development opportunities for professional growth of staff members.

Implementation:

• Educate staff on development opportunities.
• Coordinate this effort with department directors and professional development committee.
• Provide a listing of opportunities available to staff.
• Utilize all of the available pathways for credential attainment.
  • Maintain a resource list.
  • Inform both certified and non-certified staff on the various options to obtain or add a certification.

Objective 2: Mason Public Schools will provide position-specific professional development (PD) for new staff.

Implementation:

• Provide position-specific training plan and training schedule for all non-certified individuals upon hire (retain new teacher program). Include follow-up timeline for supervisors.
• Assign an experienced partner for all new employees.
• Develop a paraprofessional academy/bootcamp.
• Create a job shadow schedule.
• Provide an experienced Aide as a new hire trainer.
• Plan annual PD with the Mason Association of Educational Assistants team.

Goal Statement: Mason Public Schools will continue to modernize our current facilities and plan for future improvements.

Objective 1: Mason Public Schools will be prepared for a bond offering in 2025.

Implementation:

• Update the Facilities Assessment for the district.
• Form a bond committee to determine the scope of work needed.
• Analyze different millage options for potential bond proposals.
• Plan for transportation and maintenance buildings or improvements.
• Engage the district communications team to create and publish community messages surrounding progress towards this specific objective.

Objective 2: Mason Public Schools will address current and future needs to modernize learning spaces to attract staff, students, and families.

Implementation:

• Identify the learning spaces including furniture, furnishings, and equipment, performing arts spaces and athletic facilities to be updated and potential scope of work.
• Prioritize the identified spaces based on impact to student outcomes.
• Determine funding sources to modernize identified learning spaces.
• Generate an action plan to share with district stakeholders and decision makers.
• Engage the district communications team to create and publish community messages surrounding progress towards this specific objective.

Objective 3: Mason Public Schools will create a plan and priorities to enhance safety and security at all campus locations.

Implementation:

• Review and evaluate access control for district buildings including visitor management systems.
• Review the needs for additional camera options in all of our buildings.
• Investigate the traffic patterns at each campus to ensure the current patterns are optimal for stakeholder safety.
• Identify the best utilization of the estimated Section 97 Student Safety Grant funding.
  • Note: 2023-24 Funding Estimated at $500,000.
• Engage the district communications team to create and publish community messages surrounding progress toward this specific objective.

https://www.masonk12.net/downloads/central_office/strategic_plan_status_update_9.10.2024__facilities_and_infrastructure.pdf

Nearly a year into the launch of our new strategic plan, teams are working to implement actionable initiatives into the district’s day-to-day operations. The plan outlines four areas of focus:

• Instructional Improvement and Innovation
• Student Supports
• Staff Recruitment, Retention, and Development
• Facilities and Infrastructure

I’d like to share with you some of the unique and specific projects and programs we have initiated this year that tie into our areas of focus and align with our overall mission to serve Every Student. Every Day.

Instructional Improvement and Innovation

This portion of the plan focuses on cultivating an innovative teaching and learning community to improve educational outcomes for all students and prepare them to become active and engaged citizens. So far this year:

• Educators are providing all prekindergarten-12th grade students with instruction and assessments aligned to standards.
• MPS teachers are reviewing core curriculum material.
• A committee of 22 teachers, coaches and administrators reviewed three math programs and will select two to pilot next year.
• Prekindergarten through 5th grade administrators are working to strengthen tier-one literacy instruction through effective practices on essential standards.

Another focus in this area of the plan is to build a collaborative culture for all staff members to empower teachers and students to take risks and try new strategies. We have done this by:

• Reviewing meeting structures to support a more collaborative decision-making process.
• Employing a number of instructional coaches to help support innovative and creative teaching practices.

Student Supports

With an emphasis on building an intentional culture that generates systems and strategies to increase authentic engagement, this portion of the plan focuses on promoting positive perspectives toward self and others that will establish healthy relationships. Work in this area includes:

• Expanding our social emotional learning programming to include all grades.
• Implementing a therapy/facility dog program in the district with dogs at the middle and high schools and plans to add dogs to all buildings in future years.
• Creating a District Improvement Team and building increased capacity in the Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) processes to focus on building structural support systems and strategies.
• Building cultural awareness which is represented in our schools through the district’s inaugural Inclusion Week in March.

Staff Recruitment, Retention, and Development

The strategic plan also includes a portion focused on the district’s aim to attract a larger and more diverse candidate pool, retain talent through efforts to build a system of staff supports, and develop staff to better serve students and improve the employee experience. This year, the district is:

• Transitioning to a new recruiting platform in order to improve the ease of applying for positions, to modernize the recruitment software and to improve advertising networks.
• Adding professional development for targeted employee groups that will be expanded in coming years.
• Providing staff an opportunity to complete a survey to assess their experience as a team member and to identify areas of emphasis to grow the culture of the district.
• Next year, a marketing budget will be established with the purpose of reaching a wider audience during recruitment and allowing the district to more broadly share our story and opportunities.

Facilities and Infrastructure

In addition to students and staff, the strategic plan also focuses on modernizing current district facilities and planning for future improvements as well as enhancing safety and security in the district. Work on these goals includes:

• Focusing on updating the Sinking Fund language and any future bond offerings for the middle and high school buildings along with the transportation and maintenance buildings.
• Selecting Plante Moran Realpoint as the district’s owner’s representative to assist with pre-bond planning services. Plante Moran Realpoint has experience leading K-12 schools in capital bond planning/programs for more than 45 school districts throughout the state.
• Upgrading interior door locks, public address systems, and interior/exterior cameras in all buildings.
• Implementing a School Resource Officer (SRO) program and hiring a full-time SRO, in consortium with the City of Mason and funded by a grant received by the district.

This strategic plan is a living document and a roadmap for continuous improvement for all of us in the district. Our teachers, administrators, staff and community all play a role in ensuring our students have the best environment and opportunities to learn. We look forward to sharing an online dashboard of progress with you this spring along with continued progress of implementation of our strategic plan in action.

Sincerely,
Gary Kinzer, Ed.D.
Superintendent, Mason Public Schools

Annual Education Report Harvey Education Center

Annual Education Report Alaiedon

Annual Education Report North Aurelius

Annual Education Reports Steele

Annual Education Report Middle School

Annual Education Report High School