When the district and community set out to create the strategic plan for the next five years, 2019 to 2024, it was with the knowledge of how far the district had come. In many ways, the district’s momentum was building. The strategic planners wanted to make sure the district continued increasing its momentum.  The greatest looming question was, “Where do we want to go from here?”

The answer to that question needed to come from a variety of stakeholders – including parents, Board of Education members, community leaders, teachers, administrators – if there was any hope for the new strategic plan to be effective. In other words, the people of Paterson really needed to know that the new plan was their plan and the vision that the district would realize would be their vision. This was particularly important as the district was working toward the goal of restoring local control.

Three public strategic planning forums were held to elicit the help, opinions and ideas of the people of the Paterson community. The district did everything possible to make it easy for people, particularly district families, to participate. Each forum was heavily promoted through strategic use of social media and direct communication with households through robocalls and flyers sent home in students’ backpacks.

A complimentary dinner was provided to participants by students at Eastside High School’s School of Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Tourism. Childcare was also provided on site during each forum by the Family and Community Engagement Department.

With the help of Kathleen Helewa of the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA), the public engaged in a “3-D Process,” which stands for Dream, Determination, and Destiny by Design. It involved people coming together over three “working dinners.” Parents, teachers, community leaders, board members and administrators joined together to share a meal and develop a collective vision for the future of Paterson Public Schools.

Each of the three sessions had a different location, as well as a different focus.

What follows are the NJSBA’s summaries of each community planning session that were integral to the development of the strategic plan.

What Are the Strengths, Achievements, and Challenges of the Paterson Public School District?

On the evening of March 14, 2019, a cross-section of our stakeholders—community members, parents, educators, and school district administrators—came together at Eastside High School to initiate strategic planning. It was explained that over the course of three meetings, our work would focus on both the realities of, and our visions for, the school district in order to form a new strategic plan that will guide the district for the next five years. The first evening’s topic focused on the current strengths and achievements of, and challenges and opportunities facing, Paterson Public Schools and the community of Paterson.

We began the process with a comprehensive overview of the school district as presented by Superintendent of Schools Eileen F. Shafer. The reason for, and the methodology of, creating a new strategic plan were presented to the participants by Ms. Helewa of the NJSBA.

We then split into nine different small groups to identify the strengths and points of pride of our school district and community, and to brainstorm what opportunities and challenges we face in the future. After a group discussion, each small group identified to the larger group its “Top 10” (or thereabouts) list of strengths and challenges. The district’s mission and vision statements were underlying all of our work. They were focal points of the evening presentations, and they were distributed to all participants.

The following information is the work of the small groups. As discussed with the participants, all meeting outcomes were recorded and used at future meetings to inform the final work in preparing the district’s new strategic plan.

Group #1

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Superintendent is collaborative with all stakeholders
• Comprehensive curriculum
• PARCC scores are improving
• After school programs
• Dedicated teaching staff
• Uniform policy
• Students are eager to be challenged
• Diverse population
• School culture and climate

Challenges

• Before and after school programs are needed
• Money paid out to charter schools
• Need more vocational schools
• Large class sizes
• Children are not reading at grade level
• School buildings are old
• Transient population
• Parental involvement
• More parental workshops
• Absentee rate

Group #2

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Graduation rate
• Attendance rate
• Afterschool program
• Parent portal
• Improved school lunch

Challenges

• Teacher / parent communication
• Parental involvement
• Poor facilities
• Art & Music
• S.A.C.s
• MORE extra-curricular activities
• Instructional challenge
• Too many substitutes

Group #3

Strengths/Accomplishments

• PSA communications are excellent
• Community engagement is good
• Good administration
• Pre-K is important
• Reading specialists
• In-school suspension

Challenges

• Lack of diversity of teachers – educators – administration
• Discipline problems in the schools need to be addressed
• Make sure students have differentiation in instruction
• STEM

Group #4

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Good preschool program (full day)
• Follow curriculum (preschool)
• District has regained control!!!
• Parents have more access to internet portal
• More communication with teachers
• Sign-in sheet w/high school student (daily for parent)
• Breakfast program

Challenges

• Before care
• Grammar school sign in sheets with the teachers
• Planner (grammar school and elementary)
• More support / counseling
• More afterschool programs (not just for testing) helping with homework
• Challenging of funding for charter schools
• Language barrier

Group #5

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Diversity
• Dedicated and resilient staff
• Central office is open to new ideas!
• Empathetic staff
• Tolerance between students
• Positive energy in schools
• Huge growth potential in schools
• Strong professional development
• Community partnership / academic partnership

Challenges

• Inability to retain staff
• Staff burnout
• Budget cuts affect arts
• Need for before-care and after-care
• Comparable salary guide
• Parental develop / involvement
• Parental meetings
• Facility upgrades
• Control violence in the community
• Overcrowded schools
• Lack of resources

Group #6

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Diversity
• New school buildings
• Scholarship programs

Challenges

• Lack of mutual respect between teachers & students
• Anti-Bullying programs – teachers should be aware of bullying and see the signs.
• Heating and air conditioning improvement
• Unfair punishment by the teacher to the entire class because of behavior of one bad student

Group #7

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Community diversity
• Superintendent that understands the community
• Early childhood programs
• Staff (custodians, secretaries, teachers, Child Study Team, Admins, Instructional Specialists)
• Students ready to learn

Challenges

• Funding
• Lack of interventions
• Class size
• Facilities
• Each school does not have equitable distribution of services
• Parental advocacy training

Group #8

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Sports
• Dedicated staffs
• Delicious food by the culinary students
• District effort is commendable

Challenges

• Interactions with teachers and students
• Sharing best practices
• Lack of communication between students and staff
• Communicate between departments to address or solve student academic deficiencies
• Students promoted to the next level when they are not prepared
• More recreation

Group #9

Strengths/Accomplishments

• Community partnerships
• Dedicated staff/ good retention of staff
• Literary initiatives
• Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
• Curriculum consistent across schools
• Full-service community schools
• Attention to HIB
• More students going to college & scores going up
• Attendance is improving
• Ms. Shafer is doing great community outreach
• Working on technology

Challenges

• Special education
• Child study team has no compromise or negotiation
• (Don’t explain the purpose of the 15 days)
• Facilities (old)
• Class sizes too large
• Budget deficit
• Losing our kids to charters
• No afterschool or recreation activities for special needs kids
• Staff (some) resistant to change
• Internet crashes a lot!

After sharing our small groups’ results with the entire group, gratitude was expressed to the Board of Education and Superintendent Shafer for making this initiative possible, the administration for all its efforts in ensuring a successful evening, and to all participants for their wide-ranging contributions and collaborative work.  

What Is Our Vision for the Paterson Public School District?

On the evening of April 9, 2019, a cross-section of our stakeholders—community members, Board of Education members, parents, educators, and school district administrators—came together at the John F. Kennedy Educational Complex for our second session of strategic planning. It was explained again that over the course of three meetings, our work would focus on both the realities of, and our visions for, the school district in order to form a new strategic plan that will guide the district for the next five years. The first evening’s topic was focused on the current strengths and achievements of, and challenges and opportunities facing, Paterson Public Schools and the community of Paterson. This evening’s session focused on developing our vision for Paterson Public Schools.

The evening started with an introduction and a State of the District presentation (first presented on March 14) from the Superintendent. Ms. Helewa of the NJSBA recapped for the group the reason and methodology for strategic planning. We then advanced to a visioning exercise for the evening: each of us imagined being overseas for five years and returning home, only to find that Paterson Public School District had been featured in a Time magazine cover story as a national model for 21st century education. The group was asked to ponder a series of questions, including:

• What would you envision occurring in the school system to make this happen?
• What would be the title of such an article, touting such astonishing success?
• What would be the key visions in the article? Meaning, what would be the means the district would have used to make exemplary educational success a reality—if there had been no pre-determined mandates or limits on resources?

Participants then divided into five, non-consecutively numbered, small groups to develop a shared vision.

The information inscribed on the following pages is the work of the small groups, each of which wrote a title for the hypothetical Time magazine article described above, and key visions that would comprise that article. The district’s mission and vision statements were underlying all of our work. They were focal points of the evening presentations, and they were distributed to all participants.

The information that follows is the work of the small groups. As discussed with the participants, all meeting outcomes were recorded, posted on the district’s website, and used at future meetings to inform the final work in preparing the district’s new strategic plan.

Group #6

Title of Article: “Regenerating the Fiber of Paterson Schools to Reignite the Community”

Key Visions:

• Phenomenal community involvement
• Leadership
• Success
• Individualized model district
• Career/college readiness
• Staffing - phenomenal
• Student driven technology
• Community involvement
• Diversity
• Hyper-local

Group #4

Title of Article: “Paterson! The Golden Standard Everyone Wants to Follow”

Key Visions:

• Hands on, interactive learning
• Standardized testing NOT related to student grades
• Basic needs pantry (including health, hygiene, personal needs)
• Students of every need/group receiving adequate care
• Hearing and seeing positive news published
• Student IEPs are established at a young age, interventions are in place before the need becomes critical
• Our students are proud to be educated in their school “PATERSON!!”
• PD/training for teachers/staff to be cognizant of trauma. Crisis intervention… - STIGMA FREE
• Student, family, and community engagement and pride are high
• SPORTS TEAMS IN EVERY SCHOOL – elementary, middle, and high school
• Clubs and alternative programs are available in all schools
• Transportation is available to all as needed
• Peer tutoring is a normal part of the school environment
• Sharing programs with colleges – two-way (internships, visitations)
• Partnerships between schools & community services/goods/events/human capital
• Fully functioning websites at each school & district
• More comfortable, updated and inviting classrooms

Group #7

Title of Article: “Charting Our Own Path, Leveraging Our Gifts”

Key Visions:

• Developing citizens who are future ready
• Innovative
• Entrepreneurship
• Empowered
• Leaders and educating the whole child
• The community and staff are unified in purpose
• Focused on student growth and achievement

Group #9

Title of Article: “The Comeback Kid”

Key Visions:

• Modernized buildings
• Students are academically prepared for college
• Qualified teachers are highly motivated to come to our district
• Collaboration efforts for higher learning among teachers, students, parents and community
• Connections with the business community for donations of supplies, equipment, furniture, money and other needs

Group #2

Title of Article: “Paterson Students Lead the Nation in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technology for Success in the 21st-Century Global Economy”

Key Visions:

• Coding starting in pre-K
• Apps creation & selling
• Renewable energy
• Innovation in engineering and manufacturing
• Green farms and sustainability
• Service to the community
• Small business associations (borrow money)
• Partnership with local universities

After sharing and discussing the groups’ work with the entire group, and considering the outcomes of the first session, we identified four common threads:

1. Teaching & Learning
2. Facilities
3. Communications & Connections
4. Social-Emotional Learning

These common threads would later be refined into four distinct goal areas for the new strategic plan.

At the conclusion of the work session, gratitude was expressed to the Board of Education and Superintendent Shafer for making this initiative possible, administration for all its efforts in ensuring a successful evening, and to all participants for their wide-ranging contributions and collaborative work.

Translating Our Vision into Goals and Objectives for Our Strategic Plan

On the evening of May 16, 2019, a cross-section of our stakeholders—community members, parents, educators, and school district administrators—came together at Public School No. 25 for our third and final session of strategic planning. Over the course of three meetings, our work was designed to focus on the strengths and challenges of the school district; our no-holds-barred visions for Paterson Public Schools; and, for the final evening, coalescing the prior sessions’ work into draft goal statements and supporting objectives that would directly assist administration in creating a new strategic plan that will guide the district for the next five years. At the conclusion of the second session, we identified four common threads that appeared most frequently in the participants’ work throughout the process. The group agreed that these common threads should be the four goal areas for Paterson’s new strategic plan:

1. Teaching & Learning
2. Facilities
3. Communications & Connections
4. Social-Emotional Learning

For our third meeting, we divided into small groups, one per goal area, and participants self-selected the small group in which they would most like to work. Each group referred back to the prior sessions’ outcomes in relation to that goal area, and used that work and the perspectives of the small group members to create broad draft goal statements and supporting objectives. The information that follows is the work of the small groups. As discussed with the participants, all meeting outcomes were recorded and would be posted on the district’s website, and will be used to inform the administration’s final work in preparing the district’s new strategic plan.

Goal Area #1: Teaching & Learning

Goal Statement: To create a student-centered learning environment to prepare students for career, college readiness, and lifelong learning.

Objectives:

1. Optimal-sized classrooms for teachers to facilitate and motivate students with hands-on learning
2. Challenge /students’ learning with differentiated instruction, innovative learning strategies, and creative learning activities
3. Empower and motivate families, parents, and PTOs to participate more in students’ learning (Examples: Back to School Night, Report Card Night)
4. Have upper grade students showcase and foster leadership skills to students in lower grades (at least once a month)
5. Have the art and music in all schools
6. Enhance character education curriculum for students in grades K-12
7. Consolidate assessments so teachers have the freedom to teach

Goal Area #2: Facilities

Goal Statement: To enhance and maximize learning opportunities provided by first class facilities and technological improvements.

Objectives:

1. Address overcrowding issues that impact student achievement
2. Significantly reduce the amount of debris around the school perimeters
3. Continue to maximize energy efficiencies

Goal Area #3: Communications & Connections

Goal Statement: To increase partnerships with institutions to support the students of

Paterson Public Schools through coordinated communications on social media

Objectives:

1. Establish a student mentoring program
2. Partner with faith-based organizations throughout the community to increase parental engagement
3. Increase availability for before and after school childcare / resources
4. Have upper grade students showcase and foster leadership skills to students in lower grades (at least once a month)

Goal Area #4: Social – Emotional Learning

(No Goal Statement)

Objectives:

1. To provide more services for special needs and mental health for all students
2. Do not be so quick to label a child problematic before looking and assessing their background and reaching out to the parent for their background
3. Include parents and at times child in the meeting so goals can be clear and provide professional help

At the conclusion of the work session, gratitude was expressed to the Board of Education and Superintendent Shafer for making this initiative possible, administration for all its efforts in ensuring a successful evening, and to all participants for their wide-ranging contributions and collaborative work.  

This draft work will be directly considered and refined by the administrative team into final goal statements and objectives for the strategic plan. The plan (document) will be presented to the Board of Education for final approval. Following its approval, Superintendent Shafer will create an action plan for its actualization, which will be shared with the board. Updates on the plan’s progress subsequently will be shared regularly with the board and the public at Board of Education meetings and in progress reports.

The Paterson Board of Education Commissioners and Superintendent Shafer greatly appreciate your highly interactive participation in helping to create a roadmap for our public school district for the next five years—by Paterson, for Paterson. We look forward to presenting the plan to the commissioners, and encourage you to attend and celebrate this significant milestone with us!