Community Engagement

History of Stakeholder Engagement

The DeForest Area School District's Board of Education has a long tradition of engaging internal and external stakeholders in conversations that help to align community values and priorities with our school district.

• Examples of community and staff conversations: long-range facility planning, changing elementary school boundaries, and a Morrisonville Elementary School Task Force that studied the future of the 100-year-old school.
• In November 2023, about 100 community partners of DASD participated in Framework for Our Future 3.5. They shared important perspectives on the future of our school district. Partners representing parents, students, teachers, support staff, business, government, citizens, civic/social organizations, and/or service providers, came together for this unique and important community conversation.
• Every 10 years (with 5-year updates), the school board hosts a Future Search conference to create a vision for our school district that reflects the values and priorities of our community.

1999 Framework for Our Future
2004 Framework for Our Future, 1.5
2009 Framework for Our Future, 2.0
2014 Framework for Our Future, 2.5
2018 Framework for Our Future, 3.0
2023 Framework for Our Future, 3.5

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Board Community Engagement Sessions

The Board of Education conducts engagement sessions with internal and external stakeholders to inform the community about the school board’s work - policy, student achievement priorities, and operational expectations. To help school board members align the DeForest Area School District’s community values and priorities with the district’s mission, vision, results policies, and operational expectations the Board listens and acknowledges feedback from various stakeholder groups. The feedback received is discussed and used to inform the Board’s work.

How the engagement activities fit in with the school board’s governance model:

• The DASD Board of Education leads our school district through policy.
• “Policies are grouped into four categories, each serving a district purpose” - results, operational expectations, governance process, and board-superintendent relationship.
• Communication is part of the school board’s Governance Culture.  
• A couple of years ago the communications policy (DASD Board of Education Communications/Linkages Plan) was updated to include facilitated conversations with district stakeholder groups.  
• This complements what is already done in our school district to engage internal and external stakeholders.