USC has officially approved their new strategic plan up through 2022.

Their strategic plan focuses on seven different areas of the school district with specific goals and objectives for each focus area.

Those focus areas include student achievement, student support, technology, workforce, school climate and school culture, community relations and marketing, as well as their academic program. It is a very similar, if not identical, set up to Blue Earth Area’s strategic plan.

With regards to student achievement, the goal for USC is to achieve all of the goals of the World’s Best Workforce for all students in their district.

Over the past few years, USC has seen some issues with reading in early grade school levels as well as being able to close the achievement gap between students. The school hopes to close that gap and have all students reading at grade level by third grade in 2022.

The School District also wants to provide resources and programs that enable all students to be successful.

In order to achieve that goal for their student support focus area, USC will be reviewing and using assessments to see the student participation levels in extracurricular and cocurricular activities and try to provide and advocate for those activities in order to increase student participation. The school also wants to implement interventions for 100 percent of their students in need of academic, social, or emotional support.

As far as the ever-changing world of technology in schools is concerned, USC?is choosing to focus on their goal of preparing students for that constant change in technology by maximizing the use of technology to enhance effectiveness and increase student achievement.

They hope to do this by assessing and implementing technologies in the classroom and with their staff on an annual basis. The school is also looking forward to exploring alternative uses of the media center space within the next year.

The workforce involving the school’s teaching faculty and crucial support staff was another area with objectives to work on. USC’s goal is to recruit, support, develop, and retain highly skilled staff who demonstrate integrity, compassion, respect and excellence in all they do.

The strategic plan outlines the USC?school will be working on the new teacher/new staff mentoring program as well as negotiating a compensation and benefit package that encourages longevity of quality staff.

USC, as far as school climate and school culture is concerned, only has one goal with three objectives. They want to ensure that USC?is a united and bully-free school district.

They’d like to achieve this goal by providing high-quality cross-training of all employee groups in PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) and 7 Mindsets on an ongoing basis, assess school climate programs annually, and to develop plans to maintain effective practices and address identified gaps and deficiencies.

The School Board hopes to improve the image of the School District as one of their goals in community relations and marketing.

They plan to develop and implement a communication plan as well as improve signage throughout the school by June of 2019. They would also like to create a plan to distribute “USC?Brag Bags” by June of 2019, as well.

Finally, in areas of academia, USC hopes to maximize their academic achievement in a personalized learning environment that includes both rigorous and relevant curriculum at all levels.

They are looking to achieve this goal by putting in place ways to partner with local industries, businesses and organizations to integrate authentic learning experience for all of their students. They also plan to, by June of 2022, to research and implement innovative teaching methodologies and structures.

During their regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 16, the USC School Board also:

Approved the authorization to post the 2017-18 seniority list. This list provides a copy of a list of licensed professional employees at USC.

Looked through and approved a resolution to fully fund Special Eduction services. This Federal resolution outlines a very high priority has been placed on education to ensure that all students receive high quality Special Education programs and instruction.

Authorized both the 2018-19 academic calendar and budget time-line and assumptions.

Heard from each School Board member and Superintendent Keith Fleming on their experience at the MSBA?Leadership Conference they attended recently.

The next regular USC?School Board meeting is set for Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Education room.