Background Information

Community Unit School District 201 is a PreK-12 school district serving approximately 1255 students. Located in DuPage County, about 20 miles west of Chicago, our district serves Westmont, Clarendon Hills, and Downers Grove families. 

In February, 2020, Superintendent Kevin Carey initiated a community-informed strategic planning process to guide us toward the future. Our Joint Committee meeting which was attended by many community members, administrators, and staff. At that meeting, we had a collaborative discussion about the district’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). We then prioritized those points to begin to develop our goals for the plan. 

Due to our shifted priorities to address the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, several months passed before we continued the process. Late in 2020, Mr. John Jonak took the lead to continue the important work of drafting our Strategic Plan. 

In December 2020, we engaged our community and staff through surveys. The data from the surveys provided valuable input and feedback about the current state of the district. After the survey data was collected and analyzed, the administrators conducted two parent focus groups. Mr. Carey also conducted staff focus groups. The purpose of those meetings was to gather information about the aspirations and hopes for our future students. We conducted a Board and Admin workshop in May of 2021 during which we went through another SWOT analysis and enriched the draft of the Portrait of a Graduate. 

The administrators worked collaboratively over the summer to continue refining the Portrait of a Graduate and Strategic Plan. The District Leadership Team reviewed the document in the Fall to provide input on the Action Plan. The working draft of the Strategic Plan was reviewed by the Board of Education in October 2021. 

We launched the Portrait of a Graduate to our staff during our August Institute Day. We revisited the Portrait of a Graduate and provided access to the working copy of the Strategic Plan during this past Institute Day on March 4th. 

Based on survey data, focus group data, input from stakeholders, and the collaborative work of the administrators, we designed the attached Portrait of a Graduate and working document of the Strategic Plan.