Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat is looking forward to District 150 moving past COVID-19 with a new strategic plan.
In her annual State of the Schools address on Thursday, Kherat said District 150 is destined for a bright future as it nears adoption of the plan for 2021-26 that spells out a new mission, vision and values for Peoria Public Schools.
“It is our No. 1 priority to ensure that every student in Peoria Public Schools succeeds,” said Kherat, who went on to note how community stakeholders have assisted in drafting the plan that has been in development since the fall of 2019.
“The result is a vibrant document filled with actionable steps to move pure public schools fully into the 21st century with an emphasis on reimagining education to best serve our students,” she said.
The new mission calls for Peoria Public Schools (PBS) to ensure student achievement and success through personalized learning and educational equity. The vision aims to ignite passion and empower students, while the new values include adaptability, equity, and innovation.
“Those values never cease to inspire me and are a perfect encapsulation of what makes pure our public schools so great,” she said.
According to Kherat, District 150 thrived over the past year by being proactive in handling the pandemic.
“We led with an equity-focused mindset in all of our decisions, eliminating the digital divide, providing access laptops for all, Wi-Fi, COVID-19 testing, social-emotional supports, wellness supports and food to our students,” she said. “We were creative. We were dedicated, passionate, innovative, committed, flexible, patient, and understanding.”
Kherat said district staff and community members “stepped up” and worked together to make sure students were not left behind as the pandemic wore on.
“There were so many lessons learned: the importance of collaboration, the engagement of our families, the creativity of our staff, the strength and creativity of humankind,” she said.
Kherat said PPS’ return-to school-plan became a statewide model for other districts and helped guide District 150 through “surges and valleys,” noting that starting the year remotely came from an abundance of caution, but there was always a sense of urgency to get students back in the classroom safely.
“The efforts to bring students back ended up being a perfect picture of how invested the Peoria community is in Peoria Public Schools, and how far they're willing to go to help us succeed,” she said.
During the address, presented by the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, the district announced recipients of its Innovation Awards: Dr. Aaron Rossi and Reditus Labs; Robert Gilmore and the Gilmore Foundation; Salvation Army Majors Heath and Anita Sells; Judge Frank Ierulli; and ELITE Youth Outreach.
“It truly takes the entire community to ignite our students' passion, and empower them to be successful and responsible members of our society,” said Kherat.
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