School board adjusts strategic plan after feedback from staff about wellness priorities

LACONIA — City school leadership will shift priorities for staff wellness under the district’s strategic plan, to bring a focus closer to that of wellness for students.

The strategic plan, which maps out goals for the district looking through 2028, has three key focus areas: academics, wellness (student and staff), and community resources and engagement. During a recent administration retreat, leaders reviewed the plan and made adjustments based on how things have developed since 2023, when the plan was implemented. The school board heard an update on the plan and these adjustments at a recent meeting.

For student wellness, leaders reported accomplishing the first two action steps of updating policies to align with current research on student physical and mental health; and upgrading playgrounds at each elementary school with new, adaptive equipment.

The remaining goal for student wellness is to continue implementing a universal strategy for mental and emotional health using framework based on NH’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Behavioral Health and Wellness.

This social and emotional support is what staff would like to see as a focus for their wellness goals.

Current actions focus on offering wellness opportunities such as gym memberships. These opportunities saw 61 participants in the 2024-25 school year, and 43 the year before. Responses to a staff survey about the offerings said they didn’t meet staff needs.

The new focus will be on improving each building’s climate survey by 20% each year. This survey focuses on belonging, self efficacy, value and appreciation, well being, work satisfaction, collective efficacy, and psychological safety, with each school receiving its own score.

Results from the November 2024 survey show scores ranging from 1 for collective efficacy and up to 2.6 for belonging between different schools. The maximum score is 3.

Another change is combining the three groups — literacy, teaching and learning, and assessment — focused on academic goals into one. The new academic task force includes representation from all grade levels and subjects. Leaders found the groups were working parallel to each other previously, and thought it would be more efficient to collaborate.

While the group may split into subgroups again to either focus on grade levels or subject matters, it is scheduled to meet monthly during the school year.

The final category for the strategic plan focuses on community: communicating with it, and encouraging students to engage with it.

This year’s goal is to create a system for tracking student-community engagement. While the district has tracked these activities in the past, there hasn't been a system for the last few years.

The school board also unanimously:

• appointed School Resource Officers Bryan Moynihan and Tyler Rouse as truant officers;
• adopted a foster care plan based on current procedures;
• hired a Woodland Heights Elementary speech pathologist;
• approved policy changes related to a parental bill of rights, meeting minutes and cellphones in schools based on new state legislation;
• revised the school calendar so students will not attend on Tuesday, Sept. 9, due to the municipal Primary Election, as several schools serve as polling locations;
• approved revisions to staff wellness goals;
• and transferred $300,000 to the school construction fund, and $100,000 to the stadium repairs fund, both out of the 2025 Fund Balance.