Joplin School Board Discusses Strategic Plan

Melissa Dunson:

The document (11MB PDF) that will guide the Joplin school district for the next five years is up for final approval during a Board of Education meeting tonight.
The plan was produced after nearly a year of work that involved hundreds of school representatives and community members.
The board earlier this year approved one change posed in the plan: staggered start times for elementary and secondary schools.
The suggested changes that the board will consider tonight include alternative schools for high school and middle school, and flagging at-risk students and tracking their progress through school electronically.
The plan also calls for the district to hire several more middle-school counselors, a public relations director and a grant writer. It outlines the creation of several new mentoring programs, including a School Within a School model that puts 25 at-risk pupils with one teacher as they move from middle school to high school.