Develop the Mission
The school board, after developing a well-defined vision, should work to create a mission that defines what needs to be done to accomplish its task; it is likened to that of a short job description. In fact, the authors of a well written mission summarize what the school district was created to do. In effective organizations, the mission statement captures and reflects the beliefs that guide the organization and its members in pursuit of stated goals. This highly publicized statement should reflect what all stakeholders do to impact student achievement. For that reason, this well thought out job description should be the result of an entire community coming together to identify what it is they want their schools to do to positively impact the lives of children. The school board creates the mission with the purpose of providing an avenue for success; every decision they make with programming, budgeting, and policy creation should align with the mission of the district. The mission must be on the minds of everyone.
