Charting the Course: A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing a 2023-24 Strategic Plan

A Strat Planning Template for Charter Schools

When surveying charter school leaders, a common theme that emerges is their desire to work more strategically. Now, leaders may hold different perspectives on what it actually means to "be strategic." Visionary leaders emphasize the importance of establishing a clear vision and setting ambitious goals. Data-driven leaders prioritize utilizing school data to drive decision-making and facilitate continuous improvement. Community-driven leaders prioritize building strong relationships and fostering shared goals between leadership, staff, and the community. Regardless of their leadership style, all leaders want the daily actions of their departments to yield a significant annual impact—one that fulfills the school's commitment to the state, its community, and, most importantly, its students.

To help you achieve this, CheckBox Pro has created a 2023-24 Strategy Planning Template for you and your department leaders. We’ve divided the planning into two parts. First, is the high-level analysis and school-wide goal setting that can be completed by yourself and/or top executives. Second, is the department goals, strategies, tactics, and checkpoints to be completed by your department leadership over the course of two meetings. This process checks all of the boxes for visionary, data-driven, and community-driven leaders. Don’t forget to download the Strat Plan Template after reviewing this guide!

Part One: School-Wide Planning (You and/or Executive Leadership)

Step 1: Review your Mission, Vision, & State Performance Indicators

The first step in setting annual school-wide goals is to review your organization's mission, vision, and state scorecards. By revisiting your school's mission and vision, you can align your goals with the overarching purpose and values of your charter. Additionally, it is crucial to examine state scorecards or performance indicators to make sure you are a shining example of a public school model!

Step 2: Perform a SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a worthwhile exercise before setting your school-wide goals. Whether conducted individually or by your top leadership team, this analysis will allow you to identify your strengths, uncover any weaknesses, capitalize on potential opportunities, and mitigate threats that may impact your success. Your mission, vision, & state performance indicators should serve as a backdrop to your analysis.

Step 3: Set School-Wide Goals

With a clear understanding of your mission, performance indicators, and the insights gained from the SWOT analysis, it is now time to set school-wide goals. An organization should have between 1-6 school-wide goals. These goals will provide a roadmap for your department leadership’s overall direction and help guide your efforts toward achieving our mission and fulfilling our students' needs. Your school-wide goals can encompass academics, student well-being, diversity and inclusion, community engagement, staffing, and financial stability. They will be measurable, time-bound within the school year, and aligned with your vision.

Part 2: Department Planning (Executives & Department Leadership)

CheckBox Pro suggests conducting segment two of your Strat Planning during two separate 90-minute meetings. Ideally, these would take place during the Summer with Executives & Department Leadership.

Step 1: Share Your Vision & Schoolwide Goals (Meeting 1)

Before asking your leadership to dedicate their time and energy to planning, you must first pitch “the why” behind Strat Planning. You want daily actions to be aligned with long-term goals. You want your team rowing together to allow your organization to thrive. Set definitions for the key terms (goals, strategies, tactics, and checkpoints) so that the entire team can work with the same tool kit.

Post your school-wide goals on the walls. Invite your department leadership to gallery walk the room stopping at each big goal. Leadership can take notes and brainstorm ways that their department impacts the big goals.

Step 2: Generate Department Goals (Meeting 1)

Next, department leaders need to set 1-3 annual department goals that will directly move the needle on one or more school-wide goals. Display the Strat Plan Template and show them where to enter their goals. Provide examples and non-examples of goals before you ask the team to begin (SMART goals). Once their goals are recorded in the strategy plan, each leader writes the department goal’s connection to the school-wide goal(s). Celebrate the team's accomplishments in goal setting and wrap up the initial meeting.

Step 3: Develop Strategic Initiatives (Meeting 2)

Kick off your second meeting with the purpose of strategic planning and recapping the school-wide and department goals. Next, explain that a strategy is an overarching approach or program that requires several actions in order to successfully launch and sustain. Give an example and non-example of a strategy that supports a department goal, and show leadership where to enter their strategies in the template. Charge leadership with developing and recording 1-3 strategies for each of their department goals, using each other as sounding boards throughout the process.

Step 4: Develop Tactics (Meeting 2)

If a strategy is an overarching approach that requires several actions, tactics are those individual actions. Explain tactics to your team giving examples and non-examples using the template as a guide. In our experience setting goals and strategic initiatives can be challenging for department leadership, but creating tactics comes naturally. Tactics are the level at which most department leads operate. Charge leadership with creating 1-3 tactics for each strategic initiative within their department and record them in the template.

Step 5: Set Checkpoints (Meeting 2)

Every tactic has a checkpoint. While tactics can lead to a larger project plan instead of a smaller action, all tactics have an endpoint. Checkpoints allow you to effectively scope and sequence out the actions that need to happen in order to complete a strategy. Give your leadership time to set checkpoints for each tactic before closing out your second meeting.

Step 6: Celebrate (Bonus!)

Congrats, you have completed the Strategy Planning Process! Throw your team a small party over lunch to commend everyone for their work. Make sure your Strat Plan is clean and formatted well so that you can project each department’s plans on the wall for the team to celebrate.

Become a More Strategic Leader

You will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment after completing this planning process and leading your team through the exercise. Departments will walk away with a clear vision of what the year holds for their team and greater respect for leaders in other departments. And guess what?! You’ve set the groundwork for the most effective administrative meetings throughout the school year. But we’ll save that for another topic!