Building Success Through Strategic Planning and Collaboration
•Stevie Holdinghausen
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00:00 | 08:48
Discover how the Jefferson R-7 School District is setting new standards in education with Superintendent Dr. David Haug at the helm. We promise you'll gain valuable insights into their impressive nine-point APR score jump to 92.4% and learn how collaboration and strategic planning are driving this success. David shares the district's unwavering commitment to nurturing crucial traits like hard work, perseverance, problem-solving, and empathy among students and staff. You'll also hear about the district's strategic involvement with the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and how it's paving the way for future residential and commercial growth.
In this episode, we delve into how Jefferson R-7 is navigating economic challenges like the Ameren closure with the expertise of its Board of Education. Dr. Haug elaborates on the district's approach to fostering success beyond just winning, focusing on the mindset and actions that lead to sustained achievements. Our conversation also highlights the importance of the CSIP process as a medium for community involvement, further solidifying the district's dedication to transparency and continuous improvement. Tune in to explore how a blend of community engagement and strategic foresight is creating a thriving environment for everyone at Jefferson R-7.
I'm David Howe, superintendent of the Jefferson R7 school district and thank you for joining me for the CSIP summary message here as we close out sort of our public session of our CSIP that we do annually each fall. I reflect a lot on what we try to accomplish here. I know from the central office standpoint our theme the last two years has been the same and that is commitment to the growth of others. That's not only just trying to improve people but celebrating their successes along the way. And also what we really use as a heavy guidance is our portrait of a graduate. For each individual child to have four characteristics of, we believe leads to great success down the road and that's having hardworking, perseverance, problem solving and empathy. And then also kind of give you a more specific guide. When we get into meetings we talk about what's best for kids, but also, I think, really with the CSIP and the public. You know, planning is really great. Stewardship of tax dollars those are gifts to us from our community. We value each dollar that we get and also try to maximize its use. Moving forward I would say, generally speaking, this position, I think moving forward. My takeaway from the last couple years being in central office is very simple Don't do this job alone. We try to create that environment across our district, but I think it's even more so really at the central office. I think we've really worked to develop a collaborative environment.
Speaker 1:
Since I've been in either the deputy superintendent or superintendent position, seen a lot of collaboration across the district. And where does that show up? I think there's evidence of that with our APR score this year. We went up nine percentage points to 92.4 percent. There's like 57 schools in Missouri that have a 90 or higher and I think it's really evidence to go from 83.4 to 90, I'm sorry, 83.8 to 94, 92 percent is really a credit to a lot of people. We take a lot of pride in that, but it doesn't define who we are. Again, we look at the portion of the graduate and commitment to growth as others as our primary.
Speaker 1:
I also think with our Board of Education. The way they've developed during my time here is that they're kind of a quiet, hardworking board Behind the scenes. They ask a lot of questions but also, as we've had sort of a unique economic challenge with the Ameren closure and other environments that are out there in our county, they attend meetings with me and we try to get them into their field of expertise, to be in there to benefit our community. Our board is extremely varied in their backgrounds and we're using that, I think, as to the advantage of our community. I really can't thank them enough for their unselfish nature and working to make our district a better place. Our administrative team really try to have meetings that allow for critical thinking and also comes with that as criticism and, I think, a guiding question we ask a lot is what can we do better? What can we do for our kids better our tax dollars, everything top to bottom to be as efficient as we possibly can. And I'm seeing a lot of great things from that environment as well, I think, trying to extend that to the broader and to the county.
Speaker 1:
You know we've been pretty isolated down here in Jefferson R-7 for many years. We have joined the EDC. We had Ben and Donna from the EDC to speak at our board meeting in October Very well received, but we've kind of been prepped with them. Jefferson R-7 itself has a lot of area and room for growth and it's not just us looking out but people looking in at us and our community needs to be aware of that. You know we're not going to be alone much longer. There's a lot of assets and resources that the Jefferson R-7 district has as far as real estate and growth, either through housing or commercial, and I think it's behooved us to be involved in that moving forward. I can't thank Ameren enough for their guidance in this process as well. Just a simple set of emails last year asking about how the finances are going to look have turned into a really, I think, an outstanding relationship. Ameren has helped us, found us to the EDC and then also spoken to groups like our superintendent group, and our superintendent group is now involved with the EDC. That hasn't happened before, so we're seeing a collaboration here, kind of on the ground level. I think it's going to benefit this county for a long time, with a lot of good people moving this district and county forward.
Speaker 1:
And then the CSIP process itself. I think what was cool this year at the CSIP meeting we took an active role as information was presented that made sense is to go ahead and add it into the final CSIP plan moving forward, and we're always listening. We're always trying to make that better. So we had members of the community either providing input digitally and or at the meeting providing information into our CSIP plan. We take pride in that as well.
Speaker 1:
I think, in summary, growth is the big deal. I think there's a lot of projects on the horizon. I think both internally in our district that we are looking at that have been on the books for years, but I think those may be coming to a reality, maybe sooner than later. And external growth too, kind of the corporate environment that we have down here, of actual factories in action, both future industry and current industry. There's a lot of growth there. But even on, you know, much smaller scale, on either small business and or residential growth, our district's going to be very active.
Speaker 1:
So my assurance to the community is this, and it comes from the nature of don't do this alone and collaborative is always better, even though sometimes that's a painful process and it's tough to hear, maybe the things you aren't doing well. But I always take a lot of growth from that because I think you find the very best in people at the end of the day and what's best for kids. So my assurance to you as a community that we will inform you if there are major projects coming forward from our district, whether it be a bond issue, whether it be things we're looking to do with our real estate that would impact our community and our goal is to provide the reasons why, then also gather the input on what we can or make it better. Collaboration I'm not afraid to listen. I know our group isn't afraid to listen, specifically when it benefits kids, and then also to maximize our resources. I think.
Speaker 1:
In summary, I think historically, when time passes and we look back to this, what's kind of a three or four year period here, of kind of what I would call a transition, and we're kind of linked to the Ameren plant, we also have growth pushing in our community. You can see it from the I-55 expansion and there's a lot of eyeballs in the district, or else I don't think the EDC would be involved with us in hearing from even state leaders on what our district holds. I think the decisions this community makes in the next three years are going to be critical for the long-term benefit of our kids in our district and those won't always be easy decisions and I would say in 20 years people won't even know who was here. They won't even remember that I was a superintendent or who the board members were at the time. I know I certainly enjoy going back and listening and looking and trying to do a good job of bringing that history forward, to protect what is, I believe, a great culture we have at Jefferson R7. But ultimately we have to be okay with decisions we're making now to benefit our district long term. Again, I go back to developing a collaborative effort here, not wasting people's time with things that might be, but maybe rolling things out when it's time that this is what the reality is. We're working on that very hard, you know. I think continue to be for the betterment of our kids and, more important, our community, and that's a lot of different avenues. I'll just finish with this note and thanks for listening If you've listened to this far.
Speaker 1:
But you know, I grew up in an environment with my dad who was a football coach, very successful football coach, and it wasn't.
Speaker 1:
I didn't know if I picked up on it quite at the time, but I also started to hear from people that had played for him for many years when they said you know, the interesting thing about that program was they never talked about winning the game. They always talked about what you had to do to be successful and not allow the winning to purely define your success or not, but I think it translated into much bigger things. I think that attitude and mindset is paying off for us now with the MSIP scores and the APR scores that we received recently. A nine-point jump is nothing to laugh at and it's a very significant move for a district that has really worked hard to be more collaborative, and we will do that with our community as well. In other words, I don't think we just set specific goals that need to happen, but in other words, if we take these actions, we'll continue to set up for success down the road. Thanks for listening. We will keep our community involved and Jefferson R7 is a great place to be. Thank you.
