by: Emma Tanner; The Daily Corinthian; February 25, 2025
The Alcorn School District board approved the implementation of the superintendent’s strategic plan at their Feb. 10 meeting.
The plan was first formulated in the fall, when the district hosted a series of community meetings in Kossuth, Biggersville and Glen. The feedback was then taken from those meetings, and a committee was put together to create the outline of the plan.
Having many community voices was key to creating something that benefitted the district on a wider scale. Members on the committee, as well as general consultation, included community leaders, faith leaders, parents, staff and even students themselves. School staff were chosen by each school to represent them, and they were not chosen by the district in order to limit biases. Student leaders meet monthly with district administration to give feedback on their experiences in the district.
“The schools are not the administration,” said ASD superintendent Brandon Quinn. “The schools are the communities, so receiving input from the community is vital to the direction we want to go.”
Corinth city aldermen were also invited to the meetings, as the superintendent knows that many county school students will become adults who live and work within the city.
“Our students are going to serve Alcorn County, and Corinth is in Alcorn County,” Quinn said. “[City leaders] had insight that I don’t have. They see things from a different perspective. I need that. I want our students to have the opportunity to serve, and serve well, at home.”
The plan is centered around four main pillars: students, staff, community and support. For students, plans center around increasing ACT preparedness, increasing subject proficiency, increasing extracurricular program involvement, increasing the percentage of students graduating with Mississippi diploma endorsement, decreasing excessive absences, and reducing discipline referrals.
Staff plans involve maintaining staff in good standing, increasing the percentage of “highly qualified” applicants, developing improvement models, hiring interventionists and teachers aides to help ease workload, improving employee engagement and ensuring that campuses are effective and productive.
Community plans involve increasing partnerships with local businesses and industries, increasing parental involvement, increasing parental satisfaction with the district and maintaining an effective communication strategy that engages parents.
The goal for the support pillar is to create an environment to assist in completing the student pillar. Goals include improving facilities, focusing on student career development, increasing student well-being, providing additional classroom and restroom spaces and maintaining a secure and safe environment for students and staff.
Receiving continuous feedback on plans assists the superintendent in ensuring he is benefiting the community to the best of his ability.
“I wanted to know their expectations,” Quinn said. “I need that, as a superintendent, because I need guardrails. I’m making sure I’m going in the direction that not only the school board wants me to go in, but also the community.”
The way the plans are implemented is on a school level to ensure that they fit what that school needs.
“Every school creates their own baselines and their own targets to help us reach these goals,” Quinn said. “Every school is different, and where every school is at is different.”
The target year for fully meeting the plan’s goals is 2029.
Any questions or concerns may be directed to the Alcorn School District at 662-286-5591 or by email at info@alcornschools.org.
