By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

After several months of planning and discussion, Lake Orion Community Schools now has a new strategic plan in place.

The plan, which was approved by the school board during their April 27 meeting, is expected to drive the district forward for years to come.

During their previous meeting on April 13, board Vice President Birgit McQuiston posed a question to the board to ensure board members were happy with the final product before approval.

“Is it a high enough standard?” McQuiston asked.

Several board members spoke in favor of the strategic plan drafted, stating that they believed it was intentionally left broad to leave room to grow.

Trustee Susan Flaherty, however, was not sure if the plan showed members of the community that Lake Orion schools are “striving to be one of the best districts in the state if not the country.”

After some discussion, it seemed that the plan was essentially serving as an outline of a much larger work plan that district administration would then create after the strategic plan was approved.

The board did not take action on the strategic plan at that April 13 meeting but instead agreed to meet in smaller groups with Superintendent Ben Kirby to discuss the plan moving forward as far as the board receiving reports on the process after approval and when the district begins implementation.

Though she was not present at the April 27 meeting, Flaherty’s comments were brought up again by Kirby, who stated he had been able to follow up with Flaherty and discuss the plan further.

“We had some really great discussion and she has a level of comfort for sure moving forward with our plan as well,” Kirby said. “We did talk about having three work sessions throughout the year. We’ve identified those time frames that we think makes sense, the first one being in August. So, we’ll continue to build on what we’re doing and recognizing the work we’re doing and recognizing our end goals are and have quality discussion during those work sessions to continue to progress forward.”

McQuiston, who sat on the board several years ago when the topic of redoing the district’s strategic planning had just begun being discussed, thanked her fellow board members for the previous discussion and stated her commitment to the plan.

“I just wanted to thank my colleagues for the open discussion that we enjoyed at our last meeting. I appreciate that we had the opportunity to do that, and I have every faith that we’re going to have the integrity of this process go smoothly as we launch into creating success and joy for our Dragons,” McQuiston said.