5 Mistakes Districts Make in Strategic Planning

Every district talks about having a strategic plan. But too often, those plans are either too vague to implement or too cluttered to focus on what really matters: improving student outcomes and creating better opportunities for kids.

That’s exactly where this story begins. A school board had just hired their third superintendent in six years. The turnover wasn’t the result of one major issue. Instead, it was the kind of gradual unraveling that happens when ambitious visions aren’t backed by executable plans. Community trust had eroded. Student performance had plateaued. Initiative fatigue had spread across classrooms.

This time, the board wanted a different outcome. They aimed to be proactive. Rather than leaving their new leader to untangle a web of mismatched initiatives and unmet expectations, they set out to support success from the start.

Their goal was to bring the district together around a shared vision—one that could raise student achievement and expand opportunity. They recognized that success wouldn’t come from hiring a new face alone. It would require a clear, focused, system-wide strategy to align teaching, learning, leadership, and community around a unified path forward.

At EES Innovation, we’ve helped districts across Indiana do exactly that. We’ve worked alongside superintendents, school boards, and leadership teams to bring their visions to life in ways that are both meaningful and measurable. Just as often, we’ve been called in after another firm produced a strategic plan that looked good on paper but never made it into practice. We’ve seen what happens when plans sit in binders instead of showing up in classrooms.

This blog outlines the five biggest mistakes we see in district strategic planning and how you can avoid them to create a plan that truly moves your district forward.

Mistake #1: Confusing Movement with Progress

After a leadership change, there’s often a strong urge to “do something.” New initiatives are launched, professional development calendars fill up, and project teams start forming across the district. It feels like progress. But movement alone isn’t the same as progress.

The bigger risk isn’t inaction; it’s overreaction. Following a leadership transition, many systems swing into overdrive. They pile on new ideas in an attempt to show change is happening. What results is often a plan that feels more like a long checklist of reactions than a clear strategic direction.

When districts try to tackle too many priorities at once, things become scattered. Staff feel overwhelmed. Leaders are stretched thin. Initiatives start to compete for time and attention. Instead of moving forward, the district spins its wheels.

That’s why effective plans are relentlessly clear. They don’t aim to do everything. They commit to doing a few things deeply. We guide districts to focus on no more than three Key Priority Areas—the ones with the greatest impact on student learning and postsecondary readiness.

This doesn’t mean ignoring other important work. It means aligning the district’s time, energy, and communication around what matters most right now. The hardest part of strategic planning isn’t writing the plan. It’s deciding what not to include.

Practical Tip: Gauge Your Level of ClarityTo check how clear your plan is, ask a teacher, a principal, and a board member to name the district’s top three academic priorities. If you get different answers—or no answer at all—it’s a sign the plan needs refining. Narrow the focus, and you’ll increase your impact.

Now let’s assume the plan is focused. Even then, it won’t go far unless it turns into real action.

Mistake #2: Creating a Plan That Sits on the Shelf

We’ve all seen it: the strategic plan that’s beautifully designed with colorful goals and detailed charts, celebrated at a board meeting, and then forgotten. This is one of the most common pitfalls in strategic planning—mistaking the plan’s creation for its execution.

A strategic plan isn’t meant to be a trophy. It’s meant to be a tool. And like any tool, it’s only effective when used consistently.

Too often, districts put time and resources into creating a plan but fail to build the systems that bring it to life. The plan is shared once, then filed away and rarely referenced again. We’ve worked with districts that had strong intentions to follow through. But without structured rhythms for reflection and review, the plan slowly drifts off course.

Practical Tip: Build a Culture of Quarterly Reflection Quarterly review sessions with district and building leadership teams are one of the best ways to maintain strategic momentum. These meetings give teams a dedicated time to check progress, identify obstacles, and make adjustments. When updates from these reviews are shared with the board, they also reinforce accountability across the system.

It helps to use a centralized tool for tracking progress across schools. We created the TEAM (Tracking Engagement and Alignment Metrics) app for this purpose, but whether you use a platform or a spreadsheet, what matters most is staying consistent. Your strategic plan should guide decisions, not collect dust.

But even consistent reflection isn’t enough. For a plan to come to life, people need to believe in it. That begins with how the plan is created.

Mistake #3: Top-Down Mandates with No Buy-In

Even the best-written strategic plans will stall if those responsible for implementing them don’t feel any ownership. One of the clearest signs of disconnect we hear during implementation is this: “This wasn’t built with us in mind.”

Too many plans are written in isolation. A small team works behind closed doors, without input from those closest to the work. When stakeholders aren’t part of the process, the plan doesn’t just lose support. It loses relevance.

Teachers, staff, students, families, and principals all have valuable insights. They can sharpen strategies, reveal blind spots, and help ensure the work is realistic and sustainable. Leaving out those voices is a missed opportunity.

Practical Tip: Design WITH, Not FORInvolve your people in the process. Don’t just design a plan for them. 

During our strategic planning process, we facilitate stakeholder sessions in addition to classroom observations. We seek feedback through focus groups and surveys from all stakeholder groups—students, parents, teachers, staff, administration, and community members. You don’t need every voice at every step, but even structured feedback from representative groups can raise the quality of the work. When people see their fingerprints in the plan, they’re far more likely to help bring it to life.

Let’s say your plan now has focus, accountability, and shared ownership. The next mistake? Trying to do everything all at once.

Mistake #4: Planning as If Capacity Is Unlimited

Even with the right people at the table, some plans still fall apart. Usually, it’s not because they lack clarity. It’s because they try to solve every problem at the same time.

Equity, literacy, math alignment, career readiness, mental health, safety, student engagement—the list grows quickly. It’s tempting to believe that if something is important, it must be included in the plan.

But strategic planning isn’t about documenting every value or goal. It’s about deciding where to invest your strategic energy. When too many priorities are crammed into one plan, progress becomes fragmented. People get confused. Leaders burn out. Initiatives begin to compete instead of support one another.

Practical Tip: Sequence the Work—Don’t Stack ItWe encourage districts to stage their work. Focus deeply on a few priorities, with clear sequencing: what gets tackled now, what comes next, and what waits until later. This keeps energy focused and builds momentum through early wins. A district’s strategic plan should be ambitious—but also realistic. It’s better to move three big rocks than to try and carry twenty pebbles all at once.

With focus and sequencing in place, the final step is to ensure the plan makes it from the district office into every school.

Mistake #5: One Plan, No Building-Level Translation

Some strategic plans check every box—clear priorities, strong buy-in, built-in accountability—but still struggle because they never translate to the school level. Without clear guidance, building leaders are left to interpret broad directives on their own. They’re expected to “align” with district goals without any support in localizing the work. 

Every building is at a different starting point. What makes sense at the secondary level may not apply at the elementary level. Some schools may already have strong systems in place, while others are building from scratch. If these differences are ignored, implementation becomes uneven, and momentum is lost.

Practical Tip: Respect the Journey, Require the Progress Each building should create a local action plan that directly connects to the district’s Key Priority Areas. These site-specific strategies should reflect each school’s unique context while still pushing toward common goals. The goal isn’t to let buildings do whatever they want. It’s to give them a structured framework with the flexibility to act within it. That’s how you maintain coherence while honoring local needs.

Conclusion: Bringing the Vision Full Circle

Strategic planning doesn’t succeed because of one visionary leader or a perfectly polished document. It succeeds when systems stay focused, aligned, and grounded in the people doing the work every day.

The board that hired their third superintendent in six years wasn’t just hoping for a new direction. They knew a different approach was needed. If they wanted stronger student outcomes and more consistent experiences for staff, they couldn’t rely on charisma or chance. They needed a plan that would live beyond binders and boardrooms.

The strongest strategic plans focus on a few high-leverage priorities. They are built with the input of those responsible for implementing them. They allow room for buildings to personalize the work while staying aligned to the district’s vision. At EES Innovation, we’ve seen firsthand what happens when districts embrace this model. Clarity improves, yes, but so do outcomes, morale, and momentum.

Whether you build your next plan with us or on your own, we hope these lessons help you create a strategy that does more than sit on a shelf. We hope it comes to life in classrooms, conversations, and decisions—every single day.