The East Grand School District has sent out a request for proposals from companies to develop the district’s strategic plan. The school board has discussed strategic planning at several meetings, including a Nov. 1, 2022 meeting where Alex Carter from Colorado Education Initiative presented to the board about his company’s strategic planning process.

East Grand’s request reads that the strategic planning process will create a five-year plan outlining goals and objectives for the district to guide its decision making. The process will involve research, input from stakeholders and consensus on the vision and mission of the district.

Superintendent Brad Ray provided some details about the district’s request at the board’s Jan. 3 meeting.

“We took some feedback from folks to make sure we got it in correctly,” Ray said.

The request was sent out to the Colorado Association of School Executives, Colorado Association of School Boards and Colorado Education Initiative, and Ray said they asked them to “pass it on to anybody else that they thought would be interested in the process.”

Ray wrote in a text message that the district also sent the proposal to WestEd. The education initiative and WestEd are nonprofits that offer strategic planning services.

Companies interested in submitting a proposal have to indicate their interest by Jan. 13 and have until Jan. 14 to ask the district questions, which the district must respond to by providing the information to all interested parties. The final deadline for proposals is Jan. 16.

The proposal’s estimated timeline plans for the district to interview selected vendors Jan. 20 and have the board make a selection Feb. 7. The strategic planning process takes about a semester to complete, Carter said at the Nov. 1 board meeting.

Other business:

• Ray gave an update on money from the state’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund that has been reallocated to East Grand, West Grand and Clear Creek school districts. He said the budget for the funds has been finalized, and the money will go towards the district’s Homegrown Talent Initiative and strategic planning costs. The districts will split around $1.6 million over two years.
• Board President Ed Raegner spoke about a new mountain town collective school board that he will sit on as a representative for East Grand, unless another board member wants to join. He also said he will go to the capital for Legislative Day on Jan. 18, where administrators talk to legislators about issues important to their districts.
• Ray updated the board on a potential change to the school’s student information system. The district is currently uses Powerschool. Ray said a request for proposals will be ready soon. He also spoke about his past and future meetings with town managers regarding impact fees and the potential to use the fees for housing opportunities.
• In his superintendent’s report, Ray told the board about a change to state law that allows school boards to go into executive session while discussing the selection of a superintendent.
• In his report Ray also said he expects Steamboat Springs School District to apply to leave the Northwest Colorado Board of Cooperative Educational Services, leaving a fiscal and structural impact.
• Ray’s report also included an update on the electric buses the school expects to receive through an Environmental Protection Agency program, saying Mountain Parks Electric has expressed interest in helping with expertise and financial support, while Dynamic Program Management and the construction firm JHL have also offered support. Ray said the EPA money still likely will not cover the full cost of purchasing, transporting and creating needed infrastructure for the buses.