2023-2025 CAPP Committees Engage in Strategic Planning Workshops

CAPP Committee members from Chisholm Public Schools

January 19, 2024

Over the past few months, local Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP) committees have gathered to participate in full-day strategic planning workshops in their school district. Each committee consists of 8 to 15 school district stakeholders, i.e. arts specialists, classroom teachers, principals, parents, community members, arts organizations, students, etc. Facilitated by Kristi Johnson, CAPP Specialist, the local CAPP committees analyzed their current strengths and challenges, developed shared hopes and aspirations for arts education programming, and created overall goals that utilized existing strengths and opportunities while addressing challenges.

“One of the absolute joys of CAPP is bringing people from across a school district to ignite robust conversations about arts education programming,” said Johnson. One of the arts specialists shared, “I finally get to talk about all the things that rumble around in my head all day!”

The Comprehensive Arts Planning Program is a program designed to support and assist a local school district’s arts planning team in creating a district-wide, three-year strategic arts education plan. This plan addresses arts education policies, programs, and partnerships for students in the school district.

CAPP Committee members from Yellow Medicine East Schools

Every two years, a new cohort of selected school districts start their strategic planning journey. The 2023-2025 CAPP cohort includes Bluffview Montessori (Winona), Central Public Schools (Norwood Young America), Chisholm Public Schools, Duluth Public Schools, Hopkins Public Schools, MACCRAY Public Schools, St. Cloud Area School District, and Yellow Medicine East Schools. CAPP Co-chairs and district administration invite district and community members with an active and wide-ranging interest in the arts and arts education within their school district for their CAPP committee.

One of the fundamental principles of this program lies in its ability to bring together arts educators (and other arts stakeholders) from across a school district to plan with intentionality and practicality. On a larger scale, CAPP continues to foster relationship building for arts educators in their school district and with a larger peer network through the CAPP cohort.

In the next few months, local CAPP committees will start to finalize their plans and continue to build local support, culminating in seeking school board approval in their school districts.