Dear Teaneck Staff, Families and Students,

As you know, Teaneck Public Schools has been working on an extremely important initiative – the development of our five year District Strategic Plan – which will serve as the blueprint to guide our district in the years to come. I would like to provide you with an update on the status of this plan.

Currently, we are in the process of gathering information from all stakeholders (our staff, parents, students, partners and community members).

How are we collecting the information that we need? At the school level, we have launched building-based focus group sessions with our staff members to determine district strengths as well as opportunities for improvement.

I will note that at the high school alone, one hundred and seventeen (117) staff members participated in this activity – including teachers, child study team members, deans, counselors and educational support professionals. This process has and will continue at each school in order to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate.

We are also asking that our students, families and the entire Teaneck community assist us by participating in one of two ways:

1.) Town Hall Events – During these conversational meetings, you are asked to provide important feedback on our schools and the district. We already held our first event at Temple Emeth on March 26. The second meeting will be held at Darul Islah (on April 2 at 6 pm…this meeting requires online registration for security purposes). On April 8, we will host our final town hall meeting from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Teaneck High School.
2.) Community-wide online survey – This survey is available on the Teaneck Public Schools’ website (go to the bottom of the homepage) and is open to all who live in the community. The data that we collect from this survey will provide our district's leadership team with the critical information we need regarding perceptions held about our school district. The survey – which is available in English and Spanish – is anonymous, and all responses submitted will be used to identify areas of district strength and opportunities for improvement. The last day to submit your survey is Friday, April 12.

We hope you will take part in this critical initiative by coming out to one of our Town Hall events and/or by taking our online survey.

In closing, please note that I will present the final plan to our Board of Education during one of the June Board meetings. You are all invited to attend. In the meantime, if you any questions about this process, you can reach out to me, or our Strategic Plan Co-Chair, Ms. Patricia Dent.

Thank you.

Dr. Christopher Irving, Superintendent of Schools