Granton School District Continues Work on Strategic Plan

Friday, January 29th, 2021 -- 11:09 AM

The Granton School District continues to make progress on their Strategic Plan.

I spoke with Granton’s Interim Administrator James Kuchta and Granton Village Clerk-Treasurer and Representative on the Granton Area School District Strategic Plan Steering Committee Joye Eichten.  They discussed the latest steps made on Granton’s Strategic Plan as well as some upcoming changes being made in the Village of Granton.

Mr. Kuchta:  “I have visiting with me today Joye Eichten.  And many of you may know her in the community as she serves as clerk for the Village of Granton and also, I believe, the Town of Lynn.”

Joye:  “Yes, for both the Town of Lynn and Village of Granton I am the clerk and Treasurer for Granton.  And I do anything from the regular day-to-day billing, invoices, that kind of thing.  But then I also set our mill rates, our levy limits that drive our taxes here in town, and communicate with anyone that’s interested in the cemetery, the parks, the library.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “Joye is intricately involved as Clerk-Treasurer with the community with two different municipalities.  And I really thought that she would be a perfect representative as a community member to serve on the Granton Area School District Strategic Plan Steering Committee."

"We did have a nice meeting last Thursday evening with 40 people that attended in the field house.  Joye was there as well as her husband, Doug Eichten, who serves as a school board member and has for several years.  I would like Joye to provide her view on the first meeting we had in regards to the strategic plan.”

Joye:  “I thought the plan was amazing.  We had an opportunity to have everyone touch base with what they felt were the strong points and the weak points of the school.  Then we brainstormed on focusing on strategic planning and setting up committees to move forward.  I thought it was a wonderful idea.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “So, what we did is pulled together demographic data, so that we could present this information in a three ring binder to all of our participants.  And we reviewed all the information regarding the school district, finances, facility, budget, and student enrollment, and so forth."

"And then we asked them to take their binder of information home to digest the information.  There was also a community survey in which parents and students and community members could respond too.  There were also focus groups."

Interviews with each of the five different school board members with the co-facilitator and myself.  And then that information was transcribed and added to the binder along with three different staff groups, the teachers in two different groups and support staff as well, and then four different classes of high school students."

"So, all the information was pulled together, put along with the demographics into this binder, and then people like Joye were able to take the information home, read through it, digest it, and three weeks from the first meeting, coming up on Thursday, February 11th, we’ll have another Strategic Plan Steering Committee meeting and, also, we have action teams that are set up."

"We’re scheduling a meeting for Facilities and Finance Action Team.  And we’ll have different people involved from the Steering Committee and the greater community as well."

Question:  “Do you have an end date in mind, when you hope to have all this completed?”

Mr. Kuchta:  “We hope to have action teams meeting now through the winter and spring and then compiling all the information and presenting the final, from the Steering Committee to the School Board for their approval, strategic plan by the end of the school year."

"So, May, approximately, we’re going to have our entire Strategic Plan.  It’s basically a 5-year plan, so we have a guiding document for the district as we look a the bigger questions moving forward.”

Question:  “Anything else/final thought?”

Mr. Kuchta:  “I know Joye and I talked recently about some other upgrades coming to Granton.”

Joye:  “Absolutely.  Granton, the village, is looking at some major upgrades coming up because the county is going to be redoing County Road K that runs right through our Main Street.  For the village, our water and sewer lines run directly underneath that."

"So, due to the age of the water and sewer lines, we’re looking at getting some grants to upgrade the water and sewer lines at the same time the county is coming through."

"And, as long as we’re doing that, we’re hoping to add some grant info in there as well so we can redo the sidewalks, upgrade the lighting and possibly drive that all the way down to the highway or at least to the c-store.”

“So, we’ve got big things coming there.  But, in one of the focus groups, we discussed at the meeting was marketing.  And that one is near and dear to my heart.  Not just for Granton school, but the village as well."

"And I think that if we get the word out there that Granton has something to offer, the school is amazing.  I’ve graduated 4 kids from the Granton School and all of them went on to get their college degree, so they were very well prepared.  I think we have a little gold mine here, but we just need to get the word out.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “It sounds like the Marketing Action Team is an area that Joye will be working with and it’s very important as well.”

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.