LEUSD Ratchets Up Its Draft Strategic Plan

Lake Elsinore Unified School District will raise student standards in its new strategic plan, including efforts to prepare students to compete globally, maintain high “similar school” rankings and better prepare students for college.

Dr. Frank Passarella, district superintendent, discussed the draft plan at the regular meeting held on July 14. He said the plan is still in need of input from district schools and will likely be brought back for approval in September or October.

The district last developed a strategic plan back in the 2005-2006 school year. Passarella said the district felt if was time to update the plan and raise some of the standards. Also, the district wanted to condense the plan to make it a faster read.

“We have done most of the things we set out to do five years ago,” Passarella said.

But some new goals were needed, including an addition to the plan’s mission statement.

“We turned the mission statement up a notch,” Passarella said.

Besides having a mission to provide a program that is rigorous and relevant, the district added “globally competitive opportunities” to its statement. The plan is to better equip students for jobs overseas.

“Many kids end up working outside the U.S.,” Passarella explained.

The new strategic plan also raises the bar for similar school rankings. The ranking system compares each district school with other California schools of similar size and ethnic makeup.

The schools are ranked from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest ranking. The strategic plan initially called for schools to obtain a ranking of 5 or better.

In the new plan, the goal is for a ranking of 9 or 10.

In addition, the plan now addresses a need for better college preparedness. “This was something needed,” Passarella said, adding that too many students are not ready to enter college when they leave high school.

“You want to know the kids have the proficiencies to get through the system,” he said.

Under the "Student Achievement" heading, the district must now ensure that students meet A-G college readiness requirements.

To meet A-G requirements, students must complete a set of 15 courses required by the public university system.

In addition, the district must eliminate the achievement gap by raising student proficiency rates. The achievement gap refers to the disparity in academic performance between different ethnic groups.

“We’ve closed most of the achievement gap,” Passarella said. “We want to close it now.”