Late last year, 25 members of the community were selected as a planning committee to prepare a mission statement and set objectives that would chart a course for improvement within the Ironton City School District.

It has ended with an eight-page document meant to be a blueprint for progress over the next five years. The Ironton City School Board Thursday night approved the new strategic plan for the school system.

The new plan follows several months of discussion and more than two months of work by more than 80 people who volunteered their time to serve on strategic planning action team. Those seven teams were charged with taking those objectives and developing specific results, or goals, for improving the district. The teams also suggested ways the goals could be accomplished.

Superintendent Dean Nance pronounced himself pleased with the results.

"What really excited me is that we the 80 people who worked on this understood that we operate on a limited budget and they came up with some things that could be done without causing us to go into debt," Nance said. "Some things do cost money. The board will have to prioritize what can be done and when."

Board President Teresa Parker said she is hopeful new sources of funding can be found to pay for items that do require money.

"Perhaps we can start looking for grant money. We're not going to close our minds to any of this," Parker said.

The strategies include:

To develop and implement a comprehensive PK-12 integrated computer technology course.

To develop and implement an aggressive revenue enhancement program.

To develop and implement programs to modernize the school district's facilities.

To develop and implement in-service programs for all employees and volunteers.

To develop and implement a career awareness program for all students.

To will develop and implement partnership programs to involve parents and community.

To create a plan to establish a unified school district/community program.

The outline for the strategic plan was presented twice to the community during public forums at Ohio University Southern in November.

Nance has assured that the time spent developing the strategic plan will not have been donated in vain.

"We're not going to set this on a shelf and forget about it," Nance said. "and the original 25 people ( on the steering committee) will meet to evaluate the progress we make at the end of each year. We'll look at these specific results and put them on a time line so we can set our goals and try to meet everything laid out in the plan."