The new year presents the New Albany-Plain Local School District an opportunity to continue our work toward becoming one of the best in the nation. We are proud to be a district that pursues excellence in curriculum, instruction, assessment and services, while creating an environment in which every student achieves his or her personal potential.

Our district has been laying a foundation for higher achievement, beginning with our strategic plan. Through this effort, a process called “benchmarking excellence” was born. The goal of this effort was to craft a far-reaching vision and mission to guide our plans and discussions for the coming years. We have discovered that while our schools provide a high-quality education, the best school districts in the country are performing at significantly higher levels.

Benchmarking excellence is a range of actions designed to move our students and schools to a higher level. Our district has identified a best-in-class school district to benchmark student performance quality, as well as school beliefs and practices that contribute to achieving high level results.

We conducted interviews with prospective partner schools across the country, looking for traits such as highly effective teaching and student achievement; rigorous, aligned curriculum; quality leadership; parent engagement; and community investment.

We have found our match in the Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota. The Minnetonka district has a similar vision and mission to NAPLS. This district has an extensive reliance on data and research; high expectations for all students, teachers and administrators; and extensive access to rigorous opportunities.

This week, a group of NAPLS educators and trained volunteers traveled to Minnetonka and spent two days conducting qualitative research through interviews, observations and document collection. The team will synthesize this data, communicate the work and help lead learning in our district.

An extraordinary aspect of the benchmarking process is the support our schools are receiving from the community. The New Albany Community Foundation, with the Corna Kokosing Construction Co., has provided a generous grant of $50,000 to underwrite our efforts. We believe this is an important affirmation of our work.

My deepest appreciation goes to the NAPLS community members, staff and students who are participating in our journey to excellence. We couldn’t do this without their collective expertise and guidance. I look forward to providing you with regular updates as our strategic plan initiatives, and benchmarking excellence in particular, move forward.

Please join us at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23, for our school and community town hall meeting at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts where we will discuss “Creating the Future Through Innovation and Partnerships,” including academic highlights, fiscal stewardship and benchmarking excellence.

I invite you to stay informed about our progress by visiting our website, www.napls.us, where you may also subscribe to our News Wire e-newsletter.

April Domine is superintendent of the New Albany-Plain Local School District.