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Lancaster Central School District

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District Goals

Lancaster Central School District Goals 2025-26

Organizational

  • Review, revise, and update the District’s mission and vision statements to ensure alignment with current educational values, institutional priorities, and future aspirations.

    ​​Reflection: We began the process by engaging in conversations with student groups as well as our administrative team to gather their feedback. This collaborative process will remain a goal for the upcoming school year and include an expanded group of stakeholders.

Student Achievement

  • Review and update the LCSD Comprehensive Education Plan (CDEP) plans of action for each goal. Monitor progress through the review of multiple sources of data to help attain CDEP goals by 2027.

    Reflection: We have made significant strides toward the goals in our CDEP plan. We have fully implemented our new literacy program to strengthen our approach to reading and writing instruction. We expanded access and saw a significant increase in participation in Advanced Placement and college-level coursework at the high school level, while continuing to monitor our on-ramps for middle school students to pursue advanced academics. Across the district, the development of multi-tiered systems of support has enhanced our ability to meet the diverse needs of all learners. These coordinated efforts reflect our ongoing commitment to equity, academic excellence, and preparing students for success at every level. There will be a more comprehensive presentation of goal progress later in the summer.
     
  • Continue implementation of standard protocol to assess learning and instruction through the analysis of data and/or student work to implement interventions to support students in meeting their learning targets.

    Reflection: We focused on aligning our data protocol for assessing learning and instruction to help build and create targeted support for our students. The protocol implemented this year provided a coherent approach that allowed all of our educators to speak a common language around student performance, identify gaps, and share effective intervention strategies with their colleagues. Through the analysis of student performance data and work products through a shared lens, our teams have made more informed decisions that led to timely interventions. As we move forward with our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support CDEP goal, the use of this protocol will continue to help our teachers create a culture of continuous improvement where data informs actions that support student learning.
     
  • Review student data trends and explore interventions to improve student attendance across the district.

    Reflection: Our administrative team successfully operationalized this goal by shifting from a reactive stance to a proactive, data-driven framework. By analyzing district-wide and building-level records, we pinpointed specific "hot days"(i.e., predictable calendar dates where absenteeism historically spikes). This allowed us to strategically design and pilot targeted interventions, such as high-engagement events and localized incentives, right when they were needed most. Crucially, we closed the implementation loop by gathering post-intervention data to objectively evaluate our efforts, giving us the empirical evidence required to discard low-impact tactics and scale up successful ones. This year of work ultimately moved the district away from assumptions, establishing a sustainable, continuous improvement cycle that ensures our attendance strategies remain responsive, empathetic, and effective moving forward.
     
  • Continue to expand opportunities for students (grades K-12) to interact with people of diverse backgrounds, interests, and perspectives to build understanding, acceptance, and connectedness. Create and provide professional learning opportunities around culture, climate and inclusivity (CCI) for each school with a specific focus on supporting our students.

    Reflection: Our Culture, Climate, and Inclusivity (CCI) committee conducted a series of professional development workshops for our staff across the district. These workshops were tailored to our CCI mission of making all students feel safe, valued, and connected. Teachers and staff had the opportunity to engage with strategies and new knowledge centered on understanding world cultures and how they can use these techniques in their classrooms. In addition, our high school students did a series of workshops and presentations at our K-3 schools around building relationships and being friends with someone who might be different from you. These presentations were well received, and our students are planning more of these events for the future in their continuous effort to make all students feel safe, valued, and connected.

Personnel & Labor Relations

  • Obtain fair and reasonable labor agreements with the District’s four (4) bargaining units:
    • Lancaster Administrative and Supervisory Association
    • Lancaster Central Teachers Association
    • Lancaster Association of Service Personnel
    • Lancaster Association of Substitute Teachers

    Reflection: We spent much of the beginning part of the school year preparing for negotiations with the District’s bargaining units. In accordance with the procedures outlined in each of the relevant collective bargaining agreements, we exchanged proposals and began formal negotiations with all units in the Spring. Negotiations are continuing at this time and we hope to reach a positive resolution with all groups in the near future.

Finance & Operations

  • Oversee the creation of a fiscally responsible budget that upholds the mission and values of the school community while maintaining integrity of district programs, services, and financial condition.

    Reflection: The Board developed a final draft 2026-2027 school year budget that maintains existing programs and services, expands and strengthens instructional opportunities, expands staffing levels, and meets the existing and additional needs of the district in a cost effective way. The budget falls below the maximum property tax cap limit. The budget approval rate was 69%
     
  • Consider and plan the District’s next steps and timeline regarding the Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate based on the ZEV transition plan.

    Reflection: The ZEV transition plan was finalized and approved by NYSERDA. The report was presented to the Board in public session in August 2025 and discussed in further detail at the Board retreat in October 2025, where the Board opted to await further guidance and potential legislative or regulatory updates at the state level before advancing to any implementation plan. A district webpage was created to provide community members with an overview of the mandate and the district specific information (transition plan and Board presentation). As part of the 2026 state budget, the implementation date of the mandate was pushed from 2027 to 2032.
     
  • Move the May 2024 $178 million bond issue forward from planning and design and into construction of Phase 1.

    Reflection: Phase 1 construction is underway at William Street School and 295 Pleasant View and ahead of schedule. This phase’s work began in the fall. The William Street addition will be complete for student occupancy in September 2026. Construction will then begin on the district office conversion. All of the William Street work is one year ahead of schedule. This year’s work included:
     
    • William Street School: 14 classroom addition to southwest section of building (extending D commons), which will open for student occupancy for the start of the 2026-2027 school year. Additionally, loading dock renovations, construction of the new storage building, and site work associated with the district office relocation has begun. Interior renovation of the B commons into the district office begins this summer and continues through the next school year.
    • 295 Pleasant View: The construction of a storage building has begun. A salt shed will also be added along with fencing around the perimeter of the site for secure parking of district vehicles and equipment and storage of district assets. 
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      Bi-weekly OACM meetings and daily communication with the architects and construction managers occur, including weekly updates to the Board on work accomplished and accompanying photographs. Design meetings for Phase 2 and Phase 3 have started.

Health & Safety

  • Broaden and support safety plans, protocols, drills and practices to maintain compliance with NYS Education Law 2801a, Education Law 807, and NYSED Rules and Regulations 155.17.

    Reflection: In collaboration with the district’s safety consultant service, Altaris Consulting Group, the district-wide and building-level safety teams, and the SROs, the building and district-level administrative teams updated the 2025-26 safety plans and protocols to reflect updates from New York State. Updates included emergency terminology changes which subsequently required updates to our quick reference emergency response cards and training, addition of an After School Events annex to our safety plans, and the addition of an annex, training, and procedures to comply with Desha’s law (CPR/AED). The updates were completed for the 9/1/25 plan approval deadline and employees completed the updated training requirements within the Fall 2025 training period (and by January 2026 for CPR/AED training). Altaris also completed a verbal security survey with each principal and performed a physical security reassessment/walkthrough of each building and provided procedural recommendations, some of which will be implemented over the next year.

Board Approved: September 15, 2025