As the doors to Center Grove’s nine school buildings welcome students and staff back for the 2025–26 school year, the district is set to roll out its new strategic plan to the community.
The Center Grove Community School Corporation’s Strategic Plan is a collective vision to move the district forward and reflects its commitment to providing exceptional educational experiences to all students. The process of building the plan from the ground up took several months and involved many stakeholders.
“We’re an awesome school corporation, but if we’re not looking for ways to get better and to better serve our community, then we’re going to become a stagnant school corporation,” said Bill Long, superintendent of Center Grove Community School Corporation. “This plan is anchored by our mission to develop knowledgeable, confident and responsible citizens through inspirational and innovative learning opportunities.”
The district developed the plan through two surveys of the greater Center Grove community, requesting honest feedback from families, faculty, students and staff.
“I can say firsthand that we heard you, we listened, we looked at the feedback. We looked at the results and that was woven into every one of our pillars of the plan,” said Lisa Porat, a parent of CGCSC alumni and a community member involved in the planning process. “I think one of the beautiful things about this process is that the school corporation leadership wanted to have people like me involved. I’m not an employee. I don’t get paid to do this. My child has graduated, but yet they’re listening to people in the community.”
In addition to reviewing hundreds of survey responses, the district hosted several focus groups with a variety of stakeholders to speak candidly about their perspectives on the district — its strengths, weaknesses and future goals.
“Our focus groups involved several different groups of people; we had community members, former students, current students, staff, parents, everybody,” said Long. The district also included these voices in its strategic planning committee, which helped develop the foundational pillars. These individuals analyzed the feedback, debated and developed action items for the district. “I was very pleased with the engagement that we got from our community.”
Educators were also a critical part of the process. Courtney Hess, a kindergarten teacher at Sugar Grove Elementary and former Teacher of the Year for the district, said teachers brought valuable firsthand experience to the table.
“Teachers are the ones living and breathing it every day, and so it’s important that our voices are heard. I think that our perspective was very valuable in this process,” Hess said. “I think Center Grove is exceptional because we’re not willing to be the status quo. We’re always looking at how we can improve for our students, teachers, families and community. We’re willing to make those changes and step out of our comfort zone to do what’s best for kids.”
Also involved was high school teacher and father of five Greg Werner, who appreciated that the CGCSC Strategic Plan is uniquely tailored to the district and its community.
“This is not just some kind of cookie-cutter product that we see working somewhere else that we’re going to try to implement here,” Werner said. “Everybody had this voice in ultimately deciding what’s best for Center Grove.”
During the strategic planning process, committee members finalized three core pillars — each with its own action items and success metrics:
- Learn and Succeed: Create learning environments that challenge and support every learner, ensuring high-quality and engaging experiences for all students and staff.
- Belong and Thrive: Foster supportive environments where every student and staff member feels safe, valued and connected, promoting a culture of empathy, kindness and mutual respect.
- Communicate and Engage: Foster a culture where constituents feel heard, valued and engaged by creating meaningful opportunities for participation, feedback and connection across the Center Grove experience.
Board member and parent Jane Dunigan-Smith worked on the Communicate and Engage pillar. As a working mother with active children in the district, she noted a consistent theme in community feedback: a desire for clearer, more streamlined communication.
“We were looking to find new ways that we could communicate effectively and efficiently to our constituents — the stakeholders within the community, the parents and students,” Dunigan-Smith said. “We also wanted to find ways to engage with them so that we’re creating a two-way dialogue, and that we can all work together to make an even better Center Grove Community School Corporation.”
Dunigan-Smith, who works in strategic planning professionally, said the district’s approach — collecting feedback, involving multiple stakeholders and building a clear, prioritized plan — was vital for success.
“This plan shows not only what we are going to do, but how we are prioritizing those things,” she said. “We have the priorities, then think about how we set those priorities so that we do these things well. I think that’s really critical, and that’s what we have built into this plan.”
Transparency and responsiveness were key goals of the process, Long said.
“We want to be completely transparent in everything that we do. People need to have an opportunity to provide their feedback, and then we have an obligation to respond and say, ‘We’ve heard your feedback,’” Long said. “My key takeaway from our whole strategic planning process is how valuable the school district is to our community and how everyone wants to see us succeed.”
To learn more about the CGCSC Strategic Plan, visit centergrove.k12.in.us/strategicplan.
