I couldn't disagree more. I know from experience that developing a district plan and site-based plans for each school can be mutually supportive. The school district is the strategic unit by virtue of being vested with statutory authority to exist. Therefore, it is important that the governing board, as the elected representatives of the people, sets direction for the whole system. Schools are the operational units of a school system, and it is critical that we recognize that everything important that happens to students in a school system happens in a school, not at the district office.
Districts are abstractions, but schools are the real organizations to most people.
If a school-based plan is developed within the context of a district's strategic plan, transformation is possible throughout the entire system. Over the next several months, all Catalina Foothills School District schools will develop site plans that align with our district plan. We have begun our site planning at Canyon View Elementary School. In early April, a planning group of Canyon View parents and staff met to begin charting the school's future. When our high school's planning team is organized, there will be students on the team as well.