Austin Public School took the next step in its strategic planning mission Friday as it held to the Strategic Planning Workshop.

The workshop is part of year long project the school district conducts every five years to evaluate its mission plan and core values. During the workshop, school officials held an open discussion about data on trends within the school system, and how they affected the school’s direction. The subjects covered were: Finance Facilities Demographics and Enrollment, Learning and Student Support Services, Academic Programs, and Human Resources and Professional Development.

The meeting was attended by the full administrative staff and four school board members.

“We discussed how we are changing as a district and how we will change in response. We were really taking a look at our influences and how we will work with them,” said John Alberts, Austin’s Educational Services director.

Alberts said that the trends discussed covered a variety of subjects, including rising enrollment and increasing minority student population.

After discussing trends, the workshop evaluated the school district’s mission plan.

“We were reasking ourselves what we see as the core mission as, and how we as a district need to behave to get there,” Alberts said.

According to Alberts, the next step in the project will be the school district composing questions that it will field to the community to see how the public envisions the school system.

After compiling and reviewing the results, the school district will present them to the school board on Dec. 12.

He continued that the final step will be to blend the data from Friday’s workshop with the public survey results to formulate the school district mission plan for the next five years.

“It’s always exciting to be long-range thinking. It will be really exciting to get information from the community, see what they want, and blend that with where we are and where we want to be,” Alberts said.