Our Mission

Successfully Preparing All Students For Their Futures.

Our Vision

The Kent School District produces graduates who are globally competitive learners. Through equitable access to high quality academic, social, and applied learning, students are ready to excel in college, careers, and in life.

Our Core Values

Equity

Student equity means that all students have equal access to quality staff, courses, activities, services, and resources based on their individual needs.

Excellence

Student excellence is a balance of rigorous academic, social, and career-readiness skills.

Community

Community engagement is the proactive involvement of stakeholders in school district priorities and partnerships.

Our Goals

Goal 1: Prepare

Prepare all students to be college and career ready by raising the academic and social learning bar and closing the gaps to student achievement and college completion.

Goal 2: Engage

Engage parents, students, staff, and community in two-way communication focused on equity and excellence.

Goal 3: Create

Create effective organizational systems that reinforce equity and excellence.

Goal 4: Develop

Recruit, hire, develop and retain a diverse and premier workforce.

Blueprint: Leaning Forward Together 2016-2021

The Kent School District strategic plan, Blueprint: Leaning Forward Together 2016-2021, is designed to respond to primary stakeholder priorities with a mission, vision, theory of action, goals, metrics, and core values driven by research and best-we-know practices.

KSD Strategic Plan Process Paused in 2021-22

The strategic planning process will resume when a new superintendent is named.

As the COVID pandemic continues, we know the impacts that Stay at Home orders and restrictions on gatherings can have on our district and an out ability to conduct community engagement work.

Additionally, as we are now more than two weeks into the new school year, and the board is still working on naming a long-term interim superintendent by the end of this month. Therefore, we must consider what most needs the attention of our students, families, staff, and community during the 2021-22 school year.

For these reasons, in partnership with the Board, Interim Superintendent Vela is pausing the strategic planning process in the 2021-22 school year. However, the 2022-23 school year will bring a renewed effort of developing a new multi-year strategic plan, a job well suited for the incoming superintendent.

When the strategic planning process begins, former strategic plan committee members will be contacted about the new engagement process. We look forward to a robust and active process that engages our students, staff, families, and community in developing the new strategic plan.

For the 2021-22 school year, Team KSD will continue focusing on our priority initiatives:

Goal 1: Prepare all students to be college and career ready

• Social/emotional learning
• K-3 math/literacy
• Third-grade reading benchmark (school to prison pipeline metric)
• High school credit accumulation (grade 10)
• Implementing ESSB 6162 (our Dyslexia plan) implementation

Goal 2: Engage parents, students, staff, and community in two-way communication

• Stakeholder engagement in decision-making
• Two-way communication in various languages
• Parent engagement support for student achievement
• All staff, all-inclusive climate and communication survey
• Launching the office of Equity and Strategic Engagement

Goal 3: Create effective organizational systems

• Support for high-need students
• Budget and funding, including passing an EPO Levy in February and opening two new schools from the 2016 voter-approved bond.
• Boundary Changes and Balancing enrollment for 2022-23
• Reducing discipline disproportionality

Goal 4: Develop and retain a diverse and premier workforce

• Implement a professional HR audit to support goal 4 and eliminate exposures in our hiring, staffing, and evaluation practices.
• Competitive salaries for staff
• Instructional coaches/professional development support
• Grow leaders internally
• Job-alike professional development opportunities
• Retention (all staff)
• Increase university/advancement partnerships for staff