WJCC Board to Consider Contract for Strategic Plan Consultant

By Amber Lester Kennedy Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Williamsburg-James City County School Board will consider awarding a contract for a strategic plan consultant at its meeting tonight.

An evaluation team reviewed five proposals and recommended the board award a $69,000 contract to Public Consulting Group, a Boston-based consulting firm that helps schools, school districts and state departments of education “maximize resources, achieve performance goals and improve student outcomes,” according to its website. The board will vote at its 7 p.m. meeting in the Stryker Building in Williamsburg.

The School Board began the process of creating a strategic plan by developing new mission and vision statements last year. The board also requested the superintendent come up with a process to develop a strategic plan that would establish goals and objectives for a 3-5 year period. The board unanimously agreed to solicit consultants to help with the planning in April.

At that time, Superintendent Steven Constantino recommended the plan should include, but not be limited to:

• A strengths-based approach to needs assessment, data gathering and goal construction.

• A process and plan to engage employees, students, families, as well as the community to identify opportunities and provide input into goals that will move the division toward their vision of becoming the premier school division in Virginia.

• A process and plan to create final strategic goal statements, objectives and metrics.

He thought using an outside consultant would ensure all opinions and ideas are heard and incorporated into the plan.

A request for proposals was issued on June 27, with a due date of July 29. Five responses were received and evaluated by a team. The team invited three firms to be interviewed and present their proposals, all completed on Sept. 1 and Sept. 8. On Sept. 14, the team met to select a proposal, and based on its proposal’s performance against the evaluation criteria (experience, capacity to execute, approach and price), PCG was selected.

The division aims to have a strategic plan completed in time for implementation in the 2012-13 school year.