Draft Of Collingswood Schools' Future Strategic Plan Almost Complete

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ —A draft of the long-term strategic planning process for Collingswood Public Schools and Oaklyn Public School District will be released in mid-to-late June, the schools' superintendent told Patch on May 6.

A final vote on the process, which the district has dubbed Vision 2026, will hopefully occur by the end of June, Superintendent Frederick McDowell said.

"Our goal is to have an approved strategic plan before everyone goes home for the summer, which then helps the district leadership teams of both districts organize themselves around how are we supporting that visioning work," he said.

McDowell declined to share details of Vision 2026's recommendations but did say funding for any of its approved recommendations will start to be funded in the schools' 2023-24 school budgets.

The draft Vision 2026 contains input from a series of meetings and surveys that were conducted in the Collingswood Public Schools and Oaklyn Public School District in February, according to McDowell.

The meetings were attended by, and surveys were completed by, members of multiple district stakeholders, including teachers, staff, administrators, board members, business and community leaders, parents, students and faith-based groups and nonprofits in Collingswood and Oaklyn, he said.

Specifically, there were "roughly 20+ one-on-one interviews, 111 individuals talking directly with facilitators with direct stakeholder engagement, and then almost 900 participants in the survey with a student population of 2,400," McDowell said. "In a district of our size ... we approached almost 50 percent participation in this process."

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