Seattle students should have schools that prepare them for college, for work and for life, not force them to look for another school system to find quality education, said Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson last week.

Community meetings at West Seattle and Roosevelt high school were held to let people review and discuss goals and strategies in her still developing plan.

Goodloe-Johnson said that the plan would have every school becoming a high quality school. Parents will have a choice, so they do not have to go across the city looking for better schools or parents won't feel like they can't choose schools because the quality is not what they expect.

"We need to prepare them (students) after they graduate, for college, for life, for secondary work and not graduate with limitations because we did not challenge them in a way that allows them to open the doors to be competitive," she said.

Goodloe-Johnson's said the plan would benefit and affect students through the upgrade in student performance, more open communication about student progress between families and teachers and with tools to track student progress, but also target goals would also be made for teachers and the district.

Educators will go through a more simplified hiring process, they will be given effective mentoring and professional development opportunities, expectations and evaluations of their performance will be more clear and the assistance of good data of students strengths and weaknesses will assist them in knowing what to focus on with each student, she said.

"(The Strategic Plan for educators) means streamlining the practice of searching for a teaching job to become a very competitive process where we give feedback whether or not a teacher has gotten a job or not so we do not lose them to another position before we are able to hire them, the superintendent said. "We need a streamline effective process to let applicants know their status within their application."

As for the district, the plan will help provide technology that will assist in more efficient budgeting and tracking of the progress and impact of their actions, an increase in leadership at all levels and creating stronger community involvement with their decisions.

"We know that if we have a target that we're aiming for we have to have a strategy to get there," said Goodloe-Johnson. "Same thing happens when a student talks to a principal, teachers or someone on staff, they have to clearly understand the goal."

Following her presentation, the meeting was split into smaller group discussions to voice concerns and ideas before the plan is presented to the School Board this Wednesday.

Goodloe-Johnson said the Strategic Plan is to span five years. By September the implementation plans for each strategy will be complete and these will include the actions the district will take to further each strategy and goal.

She says she will make sure that with this plan, students will come first, district leaders will hold themselves accountable for the goals for the plan and make sure to share progress with the community about where the district is headed.

Following the May 21 introduction the School Board vote June 4 whether to approve it.

Comments along with an option to turn in comment cards with questions and concerns can be found transcribed and posted at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/index.dxml. For more information on the Strategic plan visit http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/index.dxml or e-mail strategicplan@seattleschools.org.

Allison Espiritu may be reached at 932.0300 or allisone@robinsonnews.com.