The leadership team at Niles Community Schools is in the process of developing a strategic plan that would identify the district’s long-term goals and serve as a foundation for policy and financial decisions.

On Monday, members of the school board approved using the Michigan Association of School Board’s planning services to help create the strategic plan.

Supt. Dan Applegate, who is in his first year at the helm of the district, said having a strategic plan is very important.

“It will help make sure we are all going the same way so, when people ask what direction the district is going, we will all be on the same page,” he said. “Basically, we will be trying to identify our mission, vision and long-term goals.”

Applegate said the goal is to have the strategic plan finished by February so that the district can begin using it to guide decision-making by the start of next school year.

An experienced consultant with the MASB, Applegate said, will guide the district through the process of creating the strategic plan, which will include input from members of the community, school administrators, school board members and other stakeholders.

Applegate said the strategic plan would address several things important to the district, including how much emphasis would be placed on preparing students for the workplace as opposed to preparing them for college, how to go about training new teachers and how much focus would be placed on getting students involved in the community.

“I want them (students) out working and doing service learning, but what does the board think, what does the community think?” he said, adding that these are but a few of the things the plan would look at.

Applegate said, to his knowledge, the district does not have a strategic plan and has more than one vision statement.

The vision statements he has found are:

“Building a foundation for our future.”

“Inspired locally to excel globally.”

“There is some question about what our vision is,” Applegate said.

More information about how the community can be involved in the process will be available at a later date.

The cost for the strategic planning process the MASB is $6,950, plus expenses.

Also Monday, the school board:

• Accepted anonymous donations in the amounts of $7,500, $3,500 and $20,000 for the district’s non-traditional education programs.

• Recognized school principals for their hard work during National Principals Month.