SALAMANCA — The Salamanca City Central School District administrators have spent the past few months putting together a plan that they hope will impact student success for years to come.
The district principals presented the IMPACT Plan to the Board of Education Tuesday, Nov. 26. With a newer team of administrators at the district, High School Principal Lloyd Long said they began looking at the plan over the summer and discussing how they can be consistent across the district and meet everybody’s needs.
During a summer retreat, the administrators expanded the plan beyond their buildings to the finance, transportation, food service and buildings and grounds departments.
“We came up with the name IMPACT because of the acronym,” Long said. “This went bigger than just the buildings but district-wide.”
IMPACT stands for Investment in excellence, Mindset, Progress/participation, Attendance, Character and Trust.
“One thing we discussed is obviously we want to capture the work and what it looks like throughout the buildings and throughout the departments,” said Kimberly Oakes, principal of Prospect Elementary. “We did agree it’s going to be at least a three-to-five-year commitment.”
Stemming from the summer retreat, Oakes said they carried discussions into additional administrative meetings and then started to roll it out to the staff and talking about what it would look like, reflecting on the work they’re currently doing and setting goals.
Erin Barie, principal of Seneca Intermediate, explained that within the IMPACT Plan, the administrators will align with the school board’s goals — making students smarter, improving attendance, promoting DEI, and building a culture of trust. She then went into depth about what each pillar of IMPACT means and what they hope to do in each one.
At the retreat, “each department looked at each of the pillars and then broke it down into what goals are we trying to establish and what are our strategies that we’re going to use to get there,” she said. At the individual buildings, Barie said the grade-level teams in the lower grades and the department teams in the upper grades came up with their own in recent months.
Some of the ideas they plan on doing with the IMPACT Plan to achieve these goals include the IMPACT Wall, monthly character traits and celebrations, attendance awards, aligned professional development, building further on the mission and vision, prioritizing focus areas for the year, establishing a common language for the plan and holding data meetings.
Looking further ahead, Ed Cruz, the high school’s assistant principal, said their next steps are to conduct district-wide professional development sessions aligned to IMPACT; launch attendance initiatives with student and family involvement; implement culturally responsive practices aligned with JDEI goals; establish clear metrics to track progress and adjust strategies; and engage the community in conversations to strengthen trust and partnerships.
“I think it’s important to note that IMPACT does not just apply to teachers or departments. It applies to everybody in education,” Long said. “We can make a commitment to excellence and equity within our students, and together, we are continuing to make a difference in education and our hometown.”
