The Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education is continuing to push for high academic standards after superintendent Skelly presented a mid-year update that indicated Palo Alto schools are on track for most of the district’s Strategic Plan goals on Tuesday.

There are four Strategic Plan areas: academic excellence and learning, staff recruitment and development, budget trends and infrastructure and finally, governance and communication. Each of these areas includes a list of specific goals, which were summarized in the report. The report gave general updates on all these areas, showing that the district is on track to reach most of its goals by the end of 2011. The Board also said that more updates will be provided as specific information becomes available later in the year.

The PAUSD Strategic Plan was introduced in 2008-09 by the Board as a means of measuring how well the district is achieving its mission.

Palo Alto has improved completion of California a-g requirements among high school students as part of the academic excellence portion of the Strategic Plan, according to the report. Board members added that Palo Alto schools continue to produce high-achieving students.

Over all, the Board of Education was pleased with the current level of academic success, but admitted that there is still room to grow. The report mentioned that the board will continue working toward higher a-g completion, and continue to look in to effective instructional practices.

“I think this past year and summer in addition we’ve done a lot of work on academic growth,” Vice President Camille Townsend said.

The report also indicated the need for a continued focus on student health and support groups in years to come. Board members agreed that tackling student health is a difficult problem because of vague criteria for success.

“Talking about the health of our students, many examples have been listed,” board member Barbara Klausner said. “The goals there are a little more fuzzy but clearly we have made significant gains on that front.”

One problem moving forward is the lack of clear-cut goals, as the Board has already “checked off” many of the quantifiable goals from the Strategic Plan’s list.

“I’m not sure what I should be expecting,” said Klausner, regarding some of the Strategic Plan’s goals.

“We’re in the third year of our Strategic Plan, so we’ve gotten rid of some of the low-hanging fruit,” superintendent Kevin Skelly said.

The Board will continue with updates throughout the school year, and the final report is scheduled for June 28.

Tuesday’s full report can be viewed online here.