Vision
Dutchess BOCES will be recognized for its premier educational and support services providing quality and cost-effective solutions for our community. We will promote an organizational culture fostering collaboration, innovation, efficiency, excellence and leadership that is embraced by BOCES and its community.

Mission
Dutchess BOCES will provide leadership in raising all Dutchess County students' academic performance to a level that meets or exceeds the New York State Standards. This will be done through focusing available resources in new ways that enhance leadership in our schools, promote strategic data driven decision-making, and provide services and programs needed by county schools to fulfill this mission. We shall also continue in our mission of collaborating with other community agencies for the betterment of county residents to meet the educational needs of all citizens.

Goals

Goal #1: Update the Strategic Plan

1.1 Activity: The District Superintendent will assist and monitor collaborative work by Cabinet members and other divisional administrators and staff to assure completion by the projected date.

Outcome: All Strategic Plans will be placed in a standardized format with a limited number of achievable goals (3–4), with appropriate rationale. Administrators will also be asked to submit a separate document detailing work or business plans for each goal, showing specific staff assignments and deadlines. The District Superintendent will build a master schedule of key completion dates for all divisional work plans.

When: Monthly, according to the schedule of divisional presentations to the Board. The master schedule of work plans will be submitted upon request from the Board in draft form as it is being assembled, but in any case the final and complete master schedule will be submitted to the Board in March 2007.

Measurement/Appraisal: Measures will vary by division, but in general they will measure the growth of volume in business services provided to component districts.

Goal #2: Marketing and Public Relations

2.1 Activity: Every division will develop, and submit to the District Superintendent for review, a detailed work plan for marketing its services.

Outcome: Collaborative work among and across divisions will draw from all agency resources to develop strong marketing plans with real potential for increasing the volume of services to districts and the community at large. Whenever possible and desirable, the services of one district will be used to market the services of another.

When: This activity should be conducted in parallel with the timetable for updating of strategic plans. [Note: The intent of making this goal separate from Goal #1 is to assign it a special degree of importance that has not been the case in previous years.]

Measurement/Appraisal: Marketing plans must be measured against trends in requests for services. Ancillary measurement will include focus group/opinionaire information. Positive opinion appraisals must ultimately be supported by real growth in services requested and delivered. When positive opinions are not supported by increases in requests for services, the agency needs to investigate and analyze why this occurs, and whether or not the component district intends to budget for increased services in subsequent year(s).

Goal #3: Adult Education Programming

3.1 Activity: Although gains have been made in reducing the deficit in this “stand-alone” division, the deficit needs to be eliminated completely in 2006-07. This reduction can be achieved in part by obtaining more grant money, but the most powerful way to increase revenue is by enriching the curriculum of offerings and promoting them effectively with a productive marketing plan (Goal #2 above).

Outcome: Form and empower an advisory committee comprised of BOCES staff and community leaders, from which to augment and enrich the Adult Education offerings. New offerings cannot only be described in the printed brochure. They must be launched with a simultaneous enrollment and recruitment campaign that will better assure actual enrollment to the level required for economic viability.

When: New offerings will be developed by the Director and staff, and then reviewed by the Cabinet, during the fall of 2006.

Measurement/Appraisal: New offerings will appear in the spring and fall brochures, and an analytical report on inquiries of interest and actual enrollments will be submitted to the District Superintendent on or before October 2006 and April 2007.

Goal #4: Educational Resources: Evaluation of School Improvement Services

4.1 Activity: A follow-up model of evaluation of school improvement services was developed by and for this division in 2005-06. That model, or its variation, will now be implemented to help guide the division in planning and delivering professional development programs and clinical intervention services. A “value-added” model of assessment of learning will be piloted in one or a few component districts, perhaps with cross-contracted services from the Capital BOCES, which has already done some pilot work with this assessment model. The overall intent here is to ask this question: “So what?” What has been the actual effect-size change statistically that can be attributed in part to services to districts from Educational Resources?

Outcome: The follow-up model will be implemented for all professional development programs and clinical interventions conducted during the 2006-07 school year. The follow-up model includes a client opinionaire at the conclusion of a program or intervention, and a second and sometimes third survey conducted some months afterwards that essentially asks “Are you now using or somehow benefiting from that program or intervention?” A “value-added” model will be piloted in one or more component districts, but by its multiple-year nature it cannot be evaluated or measured any sooner than two, and possibly three years later.

When: A sufficient number of follow-up contacts should be conducted to have a fairly reliable “n” to report to the Board in May 2007.

Measurement/Appraisal: The ratio of positive responses to the follow-up contact compared to the enrollment for a given program. A supplementary report of some of these numbers will of necessity be provided in the fall of 2007.

Goal #5: Educational Resources: Technology and Distance Learning

5.1 Activity: We are moving into the new world of electronic learning, but too slowly. While we have had a Distance Learning (DL) network for years, and while distance learning promises significant economies especially to small districts trying to maintain a rich array of advanced courses in the face of increasingly serious budget problems, our DL services have been of excellent quality but mediocre in scope. This is the case even with our implementation of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VIP) technology. We need to conceptualize DL as it is currently delivered in the “whole-course” model, as well as in a partial-course, or course-support model. An expanded DL curriculum is most effectively developed by one or more of the several committees that meet with the Director and Executive Director throughout the year.

Outcome: Increase DL offerings by forty or fifty percent, and concomitant subscriptions or enrollments by thirty to forty percent.

When: Additional DL offerings will be finalized and communicated in the Services Guide for 2007-08, and forwarded to the Communications division on or before November 1, 2006. Enrollments will be reported with Final Service Requests (April 27, 2007).

Measurement/Appraisal: As implied immediately above--number of offerings and of enrollments.

Goal #6: Financial Activities

6.1 Activity: Develop the BOCES Administrative Budget collaboratively with the Chief School Officers, Chief School Business Officials and the Budget Advisory Committee, and campaign effectively to build support among component Boards of Education.

Outcome: Support from Component district administrators and Boards.

When: April 2007

Measurement/Appraisal: Strong majority or unanimity of approval.

6.2 Activity: Work with the Board Audit Committee, other BOCES and NYSSBA to continue to implement fully and effectively the requirements of the Comptroller’s Five-Point Plan as required in legislation.

Outcome: Work closely with the new Internal Claims Auditor, the new Internal Auditing firm, the External Auditor and the Audit Committee to discuss and implement their requests and fulfill their suggestions in a timely manner. Submit a status report to the full Board in the spring of 2007.

When: March 14 or April 4, 2007.

Measurement/Appraisal: Reports from the several auditors, and from the Audit Committee.

Goal #7: Communications and Grants Research

7.1 Activity: Grow the number of districts using publication and website services, and develop an evaluation model for both services that reflects quality and quantity.

Outcome: Final report derived from the evaluation model which includes not only an assessment of service growth, but an analysis of what worked and what was less successful, together with suggestions for activities for 2007-08.

When: Report to the District Superintendent on or before April 20, 2007.

Measurement/Appraisal: Fifteen to twenty percent growth of both publication and website services.

7.2 Activity: Develop and implement a plan to expand the “grants side” of the business so that in addition to notifying BOCES divisions of grant opportunities, some basic services will be offered that facilitate grant-writing in the divisions. The grants work should not be centralized or controlling, but service-oriented.

Outcomes: Develop and provide to divisions a template of header (demographic) material that will have generic application to most if not all grant applications. Develop and provide some basic training in grant writing. Offer consulting services to divisional staff working on grant writing.

When: Describe and define the template, basic training and consulting by November 1. All three of these services are to be provided monthly, with a summary status report to the District Superintendent on or before April 20, 2007.

Measurement/Appraisal: Target dates are met as described above.

Adopted: October 2006