Superintendent Christian Elkington and Assistant Superintendent Monique Poulin gave a strategic plan update at the Aug. 27 RSU 9 board of directors meeting in Farmington. Poulin, left, and Elkington are seen Aug. 28 at Cape Cod Hill School on the first day of classes in New Sharon. Rebecca Richard/Franklin Journal

FARMINGTON— The Regional School Unit 9 board of directors received a comprehensive update on the district’s strategic plan during the Aug. 27 meeting, with Superintendent Christian Elkington highlighting new goals for the 2024-2025 school year.

“I am just going to review the last page of the strategic plan so you can see some of the adjustments that were made for 2024-2025,” Elkington began. He highlighted the district’s new theme, “Engage students, exhibit their growth,” noting, “We’re putting a lot of time and effort into engagement and the importance of engagement. The strategies are around engagement, and that’s going to be a theme for professional development for the year along with other areas that are needed.”

A new goal was added to the strategic plan under the “community” category, focusing on multi-tiered systems of support [MTSS]. Elkington explained that summer professional development, led by Assistant Superintendent Monique Poulin, focused on MTSS, culture, and social-emotional learning, with a district-wide playbook created last year now easily accessible to all staff.

Regarding student engagement, Elkington emphasized the importance of effective instruction. “You can have a teacher you love, but in the end, it’s the instruction that is what gets kids excited,” he said. “You increase student engagement through instruction. That is key.”

Poulin added that while some tasks from the 2023-2024 plan were accomplished, many are being carried forward. She stressed the importance of having interconnected documents guiding the district’s work. “It is important that the structures are in place and not just checking off a box,” Poulin noted. “Like the things connect when you have assessment data that helps inform instruction that can modify your instruction, but your instruction connects to your curriculum.”

“There are three documents that are now interconnected: the professional development document, the strategic plan, and then there’s the curriculum and instruction work that’s going to be done,” Elkington added. “It makes it clearer for staff to see the connectedness.”

Elkington discussed the focus on self-regulation strategies, which will be a topic in his newsletters to parents. “We really want engaged students, but you have to have better self-regulation strategies,” he said. “We’re trying to determine strategies to use so that the student doesn’t go from zero to 100. Maybe they stop at 50 or 30 or whatever it might be,” Elkington explained.

Poulin mentioned that new teacher training included a session on this topic, led by Amanda Clark the district’s new family engagement and student support coordinator. “We did a little piece of that at the new teacher training last week,” Poulin said, adding that the training has received “incredible feedback.”

Elkington and Poulin discussed efforts to align professional goals with district direction, with Poulin stressing the importance of clear connections for staff effectiveness and student success.

“There’s a lot going on, and this will be another busy year in 2024-2025,” Elkington concluded.