Traverse City Area Public Schools board members will create a “road map” for the district’s next three years at a public retreat tonight (Monday) – a journey they hope will result in a successful capital bond campaign in 2017.

TCAPS Superintendent Paul Soma gave The Ticker a preview of tonight’s strategic session, set to begin at 6pm at the TCAPS Administration Building on Webster Street (the meeting will be non-televised but open to the public). Among the topics of discussion: creating a uniform framework for evaluating district staff, identifying three-year TCAPS goals and measures for success, and implementing a new strategic financial plan that closely mirrors the results-based budgeting process championed by Grand Traverse County commissioners.

TCAPS is working with the same organization hired in April by Grand Traverse County – Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) – to overhaul its budgeting approach. “It’s a new concept from the perspective of school systems,” says Soma. “A traditional budget starts with dollars available, then allocates those out. With this (process), the driver is your educational priorities and what you want to accomplish as an organization. It means aligning our budget with our priorities, rather than the other way around."

Soma points to a math pilot program – which will see eight elementary schools testing different math curricula this fall – as an example of GFOA's "non-traditional" philosophy, which emphasizes performance and results. “It’s thinking about your return on investment,” Soma says. “(Our budget) isn’t going to change overnight. Rather, it’s an evolution into a whole new process.”

Discussion of how TCAPS can better connect “financial decisions to student achievement goals” will kick off tonight and continue in the coming months, says Soma.

Soma has also identified four major goals (or “deliverables”) for TCAPS leading up to 2017. They include returning to a 10 percent fund balance, having “unity of purpose” throughout the district, achieving a “highly reliable school system” (defined by academic performance) and increasing program efficiency.

“We’ll be doing that in an environment of declining revenue, declining student populations and aging facilities,” says Soma. “So the board has to look at, how are we going to plan for that?”

Two main benchmarks will determine whether TCAPS is successful, Soma believes: increased student achievement, as measured by specific testing standards – and a successful capital bond millage in 2017.

“That’s an assessment, not the main goal,” clarifies Soma. “If we balance the budget, increase our fund equity, have unity of purpose, and deliver on student achievement…when we go to address our infrastructure problems again, community support of (a bond proposal) will be an indicator of whether we’ve been successful.”

Previous back-to-back TCAPS capital bond proposals failed in 2012 and 2013. City residents supported the millages, but the proposals failed in outlying rural areas. Better engaging communities throughout the TCAPS district has been another stated board goal.

Tonight’s board retreat discussion will also include a review of TCAPS’ one-page strategic plan, executive team leadership goals, and performance evaluation criteria for Soma, according to the superintendent.