The Butler County Board of Education unanimously approved a new five-year strategic plan Thursday night.

The plan, which focuses on four key areas, has been in the works since March when Superintendent Amy Bryan took the reigns of the district.

“We have been working (on the plan) since I was appointed,” Bryan said. “… We knew at that time we needed to have a strategic plan in place for our district so we could set goals, work towards those goals and watch our progress towards meeting those.”

The school system had been operating without a strategic plan. The previous Butler County Strategic Plan covered 2006-2011 and led to the development of local curriculum guides, school safety improvements, Pre-K expansion and facility upgrades.

The areas covered by the plan approved Thursday night will be learners, support systems, professionals and schools/systems.

“Those four areas mirror the state’s Plan 2020 priorities,” Bryan said. “Those are the things we will be held accountable for by the state.”

Learners will focus on student academics, while the support systems will focus on all other aspects of a student’s experience in the school system.

Schools/systems will focus on finances, technology and facilities and professionals will focus on areas concerning faculty and staff in the school system.

Bryan said that the plan addresses the need for more advanced class options for students.

“We want to provide as many opportunities for our students on the upper end as well as our struggling students,” she said.

Bryan said the plan also emphasizes the need to provide teachers with professional development without taking them away from instructional time with students.

The plan also outlines how the system will address future infrastructure upgrades, such as the addition of new technology and the creation of a 15-year facility plan.

“That plan will ensure that we’re not spending a few dollars here and there, when we plan to do something bigger in the future,” Bryan said.

Board of Education member Mickey Jones said the plan is not merely for administrators and teachers, but is for the community as a whole.

“This plan is for everybody. As a community we need to come together and see that this plan is carried out,” he said.

Board of Education member Joe Lisenby applauded the school leaders, parents and community members who helped craft the new plan.

“I was very, very impressed the first time I read through it, and I’ve become even more impressed as I’ve studied it,” he said. “… The value of it will be determined over the next two or three to five years. To see if this board, the superintendent, and all of the major department heads in the system keep this plan alive and before, not only themselves, but before the whole system.

“…I think the system needs the vitality that a plan like this can bring and I am grateful to all those who participated in bringing it about.”