On this page, you will find the staff updates that we shared during the process of creating the Strategic Plan. In the summer of 2022, the final Strategic Plan was completed, and we’ll be taking steps throughout the fall of 2022 and beyond to share the plan with staff across the agency, and engage in thinking and collaboration about next steps forward.
February, 2022 Update:
The Strategic Planning Committee welcomes two new members to the work: Isolda Ortega-Bustamanante, and Clarke Bankert, for this final phase of the project. We regret losing Romina Pacheco and Gladys Franco from this work when they moved on from CES, but thank them for their service!
We have made significant progress since our last update, gethering departmental input and presentations of their department-specific SWOT exercises, and reflecting on both these and CES-wide input to the organization SWOT, to develop a final CES SWOT analysis.
In addition, input has been gathered and work done to develop an updated CES mission, values, and vision statement. Draft statements in all three areas have been discussed by the SPC, and these will soon be made available for review and response to CES staff.
Based on all of this work, the identification of goals and objective for the CES Strategic Plan has begun, and is incorporating feedback from a very large cross departmental group that was convened on December 9th and 10, 2021. Work is proceeding to process all of the feedback gathered in that session, and to arrive at a set of proposed goals and objectives based on that work, for our final Strategic Plan. These will also be shared for review and comment.
May 24th Update:
The Strategy Matters consulting team is currently travelling for other clients and will be reconvening with the CES strategic planning committee in early June. At that time, and in followup to the feedback provided during the May 11th and 13th open planning sessions, our consultants will propose several different avenues to a completed plan. The planning sessions were well attended, and some concerns were raised around the need to gather expanded input from some stakeholders that were felt to be missing from the earlier research. In those meetings, the team’s research findings were discussed and their draft SWOT analysis presented. Given the concerns around additional research, it was decided not to move forward to the establishment of goals for the plan until the process had been reviewed vis a vis the input provided.
May 9th Update:
Your strategic planning committee members are looking forward to the two open strategic planning sessions that will be held this week, Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30pm. Our consultants have requested that we make available to all of you the information below about our progress to date.
Please watch the video before Tuesday:
For all those who are planning to come to this Tuesday’s working strategic planning session:
Please take the time to watch the video you will find at this link, before Tuesday’s meeting. It provides an overview of where we are in the process, some regrouping that we’ve identified based on the feedback collected so far, and the data itself. It’s important that Tuesday be a working session, where we can provide ideas and identify important next steps, hence the need for this preparation.
If you have not yet decided to come to Tuesday’s session, we encourage you to consider it. CES is working hard to create as inclusive a process as possible, and we want to be sure to raise up all voices at the agency. You can find the zoom link and details about the Tuesday/Thursday sessions on the CES calendar, which is on the home page of our Intranet (scroll down)
Our strategic planning consultants have provided, in addition to the video presentation, two documents to share with you all.
- One provides context for the SWOT analysis
- One provides the SWOT analysis slide deck, that goes with the video
Please feel free to follow along using these or refer back to them.
Please know that we are sharing these not only in preparation for the work sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, but also in an effort to provide updates to everyone across the agency about our progress to date.
April 28th Update:
The CES Strategic Planning team and consultants have almost completed the research phase of their work, and moved on to a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities). This is a pivotal step in building the final plan, and we hope to engage wide participation by CES staff for discussing and validating the SWOT and for moving us forward to identify strategic goals.
We are inviting all CES staff members to two upcoming planning sessions in May. We know that it’s likely not everyone will be able to participate, but we hope that you can come. All CES voices are vital at this point in the process.
There will be two strategic planning sessions. It is best if everyone can attend both, because they are essentially part 1 and part 2 of the work.
Part 1 is a discussion of the SWOT analysis developed by then, and a review of mission and values. That will be on 5/11, 3:30-5:30. The zoom link for Part 1 is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86450424483,
Meeting ID: 864 5042 4483
Part 2 is a discussion about setting strategic plan goals for CES. That will be on 5/13, 3:30-5:30. The zoom link for Part 2 is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82527064445, Meeting ID: 825 2706 4445
On the weekend prior to Part 1 the consultants will be videotaping a half hour overview of the SWOT analysis presentation, and will be asking participants to view it before the 5/11 meeting.
You can find both of these as calendar events on the CES Events Calendar, if you would like to copy them over onto your own, or you can add them yourself to your calendar. Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend these Strategic Planning Sessions, that will help us to anticipate a count for activities.
All CES staff members are enthusiastically encouraged to attend these planning sessions. If you have questions about this part of the process, please feel free to email josh@strategymatters.org.
Thank you!
Your CES Strategic Planning Committee
Our partners at Strategy Matters
For those who might be interested in the jamboard work that was accomplished in our first open Town Hall (seems like a long time ago!), here are some links to get back to that thinking:
March 25 update: As the Strategic Plan and organizational health Survey closes, planning is well underway to schedule and complete focus groups with audiences including teachers (staff), district and school leadership, students, our Board, and as needed, some groups of departmental staff. The plan is to complete the majority of focus group work in April in order to consolidate data and move on to the development of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) review with first the SPC and SJE Platform as a group, and then with the Board.
In May, there will be larger Retreat events for all staff and the Board, planned to present the SWOT and gather feedback to develop and build consensus on goals and objectives. Prior to the Retreats, our consultants will be sharing out to all staff and the Board the findings about our SWOT analysis, in preparation for the Retreat discussions.
Strategic Plan Survey Extended to March 1
We are extending the deadline for completing the survey to March 1st, 2021. Progress has been slow and steady, and we are sensitive to how busy everyone is. We’ll try to provide an update on our progress weekly, like the one you see at this link. We need more participation, so if you have not taken the survey yet, please try to make the time. The survey takes between 30-40 minutes. We know that’s a big investment of time, but it is an important way to share your voice.
Our consultants have also provide a Survey FAQs document, click here to view.
Strategic Plan Stakeholder Survey
We invite ALL CES staff to provide us with feedback and perspective for the plan through this survey. It has also been sent to a wide array of our customers, districts, partners and stakeholders in the community. The survey is digital, and has been developed in partnership with our strategic planning consultant team at Strategy Matters. All responses to the survey will be held as anonymous, and the consulting team will remove any identifying information before sharing.
Please help us by completing the survey at this link: https://www.
Your voice matters, and it is vitally important that we hear from as many folks as we can. Thank you in advance for your help.
Our consultant partners at Strategy Matters provided the graphic below as a quick way to understand the sequence and process for strategic planning:
Virtual Town Hall
On January 13th, a virtual Town Hall style meeting was held with the consulting team and members of the strategic planning committee, and all CES staff were invited.
The Strategy Matters consulting team provided information about the scope and timeline for the planning process, and the range of opportunities for staff input and engagement. The attendees worked together, in facilitated small-group sessions, to talk about what is currently working well at CES, and what opportunities there might be to improve.
For those of you who were not able to attend, we offer:
- A video recording of the Town Hall
- The Town Hall Report
Our Strategic Planning Committee
- Karen Reuter (Chair)
- Gwynne Morrissey
- José Lugo
- Mike Maticke
- Isolda Ortega-Bustamante
- P.Clarke Bankert
- Kathy Levesque
- Desiree Lalbeharie-Josias
- Liza Manchester
- Sarah Molloy
Selection of Strategy Matters as our strategic planning consultant for the plan
- Five proposals were evaluated from organizations applying to work with us on our strategic planning process. These were evaluated by the Strategic Planning Consultant Search Committee, which conducted interviews of two finalist candidates, and a top candidate was selected as the recommended partner for this process moving forward. The finalist was recommended to the ED on July 2nd, 2020, and the Cabinet voted their approval on the selection at the next meeting following.
- The Strategic Planning Consultant Search Committee included:
- Karen Reuter (Chair)
- Rebecca Mazur
- Safire DeJong
- Romina Pacheco
- Gwynne Morrissey
- Kathy Levesque