Community Planning Team End of Year Event

This week marked the final meeting of the community planning Team for the Academic year 2019-2020. This event is a crucial step in the futures planning process, and has traditionally had three distinct aims;

1. To ensure clarity of our futures planning process, and the futures pathway goals within it.
2. To celebrate and provide insight into the success of the current year’s goals, to the widest stakeholder group
3. To reach consensus on the approval of futures planning goals for the year to come

These aims ensure that AISC has a wide range of community input into the inception and confirmation of the Futures Plan. The Community Planning teams draws from the widest range of any AISC team, enjoying membership by parents, alumni, board and council of advisors members, faculty, administrators, and a number of students.

This year’s aims were no different, and through virtual means, we successfully reviewed the various successful outcomes from the Pathway Goals from the current academic year. We also highlighted areas where the impact of campus restriction and global closure had slowed/paused, or accelerated, the work of these pathways.

The goals for next year were explained and clarified in a parallel process, allowing highly engaged conversations and feedback about the planning for next year, within smaller groups. The pathway leaders moved each small group towards consensus about the pathway goal, and the outline of how to achieve it. Then, in a culminating presentation and consensus step, the AISC Planning Team approved the goals outlined in the latest futures plan, that will be published in the coming months. The photo shows our consensus in action.

In the second session, the Planning Team reviewed the implications for planning, within each of our Middle States Association (MSA) Accreditation standards. These planning statements direct the conversation within our accreditation process, and the planning steps that may be taken after our self study, and site visit are completed.

With over 30 members present, the event was a remarkable success, and I offer my warmest appreciation to the members for the flexibility, dynamism, group coherence and resilience they show when working through this system wide complexity. VIrtual meetings add to this complexity, and they dealt with it admirably.

The Community planning Team will reconvene in September, for further goal review, and action plan discussions.