The changes to Clayton County Public School’s strategic plan for the new school year were as minor as changing a word or two to as major as rewriting entire paragraphs.

However, according to Monika Wiley, Clayton County School System director of fine arts and moderator of the district’s annual strategic plan revision, the meeting was designed so that everyone had an input into the revisions with more public opportunity to adjust the plan forth coming.

More than 200 people, including Clayton County school officials, PTA members, parents of Clayton students and a host of other interested Clayton citizens, gathered last Thursday at the Truett Cathy Professional Learning Center in Jonesboro to give their input in plotting the course of the school system this new school year.

“The purpose of this annual meeting is to go through our strategic plan, which embodies our school system’s mission, goals and belief statements to make sure that Clayton County remains on the right path as we enter another school year,” Wiley said, adding that the strategic plan is reviewed each August.

She added with Common Core and College and Career Readiness initiatives coming into play this year, the goal of the meeting was to make sure the school district’s vision, mission, goals and belief statements actually supported them.

Wiley said all of the suggested revisions made by those at the meeting will be compiled and included on the Clayton County school district’s Web site, where they will remain for approximately a month.

“Here, we will seek more community input through our Web site,” she said.

“The proposed changes suggested at the meeting and through our Web site will be compiled and we will then take the changes to the school board,” Wiley said.

Among the suggested changes made at the meeting was to the school system’s vision and mission.

For example, the vision statement originally reads, “The vision of Clayton County Public Schools is to be the district of excellence preparing all students to successfully live and compete in the global economy.”

Wiley said it was suggested that the statement be changed to read, “The shared vision of Clayton County Public Schools is to be the district of excellence preparing college and career ready students to successfully complete in a global society.”

“Out school system’s mission, belief and vision statements are changing because society is changing,” Wiley said.