Bringing It All Together

Introduction

Leadership at K-12 schools is a sensitive task, especially to its stakeholders and other partners. It requires proper planning, management and effective implementation of ideas and policies. Education schools require a professional approach of leadership, whereby each of the school activities should be skillfully carried out. The school environment is complicated, whereby critical application of research should be enhanced. Therefore, this explains the needs of a campus master plan in such an educational environment. A master plan, also known as a strategic plan, ensures that the complexity of such an institution is handled in an effective way. In addition, strategic plan generalizes the educational environment into academic, strategic and budget planning. The three aspects within the educational environment should be well handled to ensure the continuity and sustainability of learning activities in schools. They are covered in a campus strategic plan through the elements. The research paper aims at analyzing the elements of a comprehensive strategic plan at the k-12 educational environment that play a huge role in ensuring success and effective utilization of resources.

Facilities’ Planning

Facilities’ planning is a basic element that includes the environmental layout and resources for the facilitation of learning, the school’s facilities efficiency and the safety measures concerning the school’s equipment and buildings (Adeogun & Olisaemeka, 2011). Efficient facilities planning ensure an organized educational system, whereby each resource is availed effectively and promptly. This ensures that there are efficient resources for running the educational institution.

Facilities plan should have flexibility and open-ended properties, as its running principles. Flexibility of the plan ensures that the growth of institution is in controllable limits, where there is a continuity of the growth. The growth of institution in the education environment should be considerate of the trends in the education environment, hence the need of flexibility in the facilities plan (Longenecker, 2011). Open-ended property of the facilities plan should be present to ensure that the strategic plan is attentive to all the issues in schools. The plan should be considerate of the affairs and needs of the students and teachers. This will ensure that there is a harmony in performance of tasks in the institution. Affordability of the facilities plan in a strategic plan is another key factor in the strategic plan. The plan should be affordable to implement (Johnston, 2012). There should be no complexities in ensuring that the plan is affected on the ground. Therefore, a facility plan should be efficient for the success of the learning institution’s activities.

Facilities planning have an important role in the institution. It informs the stakeholders of the whole plan. This helps to clearly understand the plan, hence creating an environment where each of the stakeholders can offer assistance. For performing this purpose, facilities plan should entail all the requirements of the institution. Physical structure forms the core of the facility planning, whereby the students within the institution have to learn in the structures (Longenecker, 2011). The structures should be well equipped and should promote learning through facilitating a favorable environment (Adeogun & Olisaemeka, 2011). Through facilities planning, the favorable environment of the physical structure is determined using educational experiences and the communities. The two factors help in equipping the physical structure, hence resulting in an efficient facility plan.

Teacher workspaces are also important in a facility plan. They ensure that education services are favorably offered to the students. Teacher workspaces are catered for in a facility plan through the construction of a common meeting place, whereby they collaborate among themselves. This collaboration brings about unity among teachers, making them deliver fully to their students. In addition, an efficient teacher workspace helps in enhancing teacher preparation and innovation within the institution (Johnston, 2012). Therefore, services offered by teachers under an efficient facility plan are of high quality, creating a sound environment for learning.

Facilities planning also involve the working manpower in the institution. The strategic planning should ensure that work within school is fully attended to through the employment of workers. This involves both the teaching staff and the supportive staff. The two are highly required for the efficient school activities. Facilities planning should clearly define the qualities of each of the staffs employed (Longenecker, 2011). Therefore, it governs the working functions of the manpower, creating high quality services.

Facilities planning should be considerate of the learning environment. It is responsible for ensuring that there are no disruptions in the activity performance within the institution (Sullivan & Richardson, 2011). Firstly, it ensures that the school is located in a favorable location for learning to take place. This location should be strategic to the students and should be free from unnecessary noise. Secondly, it designs the learning environment through stating the requirements that a physical structure should carry (Adeogun & Olisaemeka, 2011). For instance, facilities planning can improve the learning environment by stating that each of the physical structures in schools should be installed with fans, creating a breeze when the temperature is high. This enhances learning in the institution, resulting in better performance (Longenecker, 2011). Therefore, facility planning is an important element in the strategic planning that should not be neglected. More emphasis should be cultivated on it to ensure that it fully suits the institutions.

Mission

A mission for an institution is another important element in campus strategic planning. A mission is required in most institutions because it creates a sense of direction within the learning institution (Johnston, 2012). Most importantly, it is a simple representation of the internal institution’s activities. It boosts the institution’s unity because it creates a common working strategy for all the people in the institution. For instance, a mission enables the students to work hard. Teachers are also pressurized by the mission to put extra efforts in delivering (Adeogun & Olisaemeka, 2011). Therefore, teachers and students are in for a common mission, hence making them work together in harmony.

An effective mission for a learning institution should be flexible to ensure that the future changes that may occur are fully catered for. The flexibility of the mission facilitates the continuity of the institution (Sullivan & Richardson, 2011). Continuity is experienced in terms of continued activities without any stopping to adjust the mission of the institution to suit the trends. In addition, the mission for an institution should be all inclusive. This means that it should consider all the people within the institution pressurizing them to work towards a common target, creating harmony in the organization (Longenecker, 2011). In return, the mission will facilitate an effective output for the school. Therefore, the institution’s mission is important in upholding the schools’ strategic plan.

Goals

An important element of the strategic plan is the institution’s goals. The goals for an institution enhance its continuity in the education sector. Goals are targets that the institution has to attain within a given period of time (Johnston, 2012). The inclusion of the goals in a strategic plan is effective because it ensures that the goals are fully achieved after the required period. The goals of an institution have had a successful history, whereby the institutions who have applied goals in the past have overpassed the institutions with no goals. Goals within the schools have ensured that the students remain focused in their studies and that they maintain high standard of order in the institution (Adeogun & Olisaemeka, 2011). 

Goals in an education institution are achieved through practices, such as the supervision of various role players in the institution. The students should be kept on their toes to ensure that they are serious about their studies. Teachers should ensure that they are not negligent in their jobs. They should also be supervised by an authoritative person to ensure that they achieve the goals set in the strategic planning (Johnston, 2012). However, supervision of the stakeholders in the institution should be interactive to avoid wrangle development in the institution.

Current trends in the institution should also be considered in the goals. The goals should be made easy to incorporate the changes that may occur. This enables the institution to be more efficient in its leadership strategies, classroom practices and the students’ outcomes. This ensures that the organization is uniform in performance of tasks, where the leadership in the organization is structured to accommodate the changes (Longenecker, 2011). The current trends enhance organization in the institution through the incorporation of the trends with the institution’s goals. Therefore, the goals of an institution are important elements of the campus master plan.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the comprehensive strategic plan is an all-inclusive plan that ensures that every sector of the institution is considered. It ensures effective sustainability and continuity of a K-12 school. Its elements are important, as they ensure that the school activities run efficiently and smoothly. It assists in connecting needs with the available resources as well as establishing priorities. Schools are able to create a curriculum along with instructions and assessment procedures that are aimed at achieving goals and objectives. In that case, the planning process gives stakeholders and partners the chances to discuss vision in school. That way, all elements of a comprehensive strategic plan are ought to be taken into consideration.