New to the district, Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff was tasked with developing his 100-day plan and the district’s new strategic plan. He needed to get to know the Osceola School District’s 360,000-strong community and gather authentic feedback from his educational partners.

Dr. Shanoff wanted to ensure that his team engaged the district’s large Spanish-speaking population to encourage interaction across language barriers.

He knew he couldn’t have a personal conversation with everyone who wanted to give feedback, but he had an effective way to capture their perspectives accurately. He turned to ThoughtExchange—a platform he had used in his last position at one of Florida’s largest school districts, Orange County Public Schools.

When Dr. Shanoff set out to develop his 100-day plan and identify focus areas for the district’s strategic plan, he knew ThoughtExchange would play a significant role. Communication and collaboration with his educational partners were vital to Dr. Shanoff’s entry plan, so his team leveraged our Exchange tool at town halls to capture an accurate view of his new district.

At the town halls, Dr. Shanoff and his team asked attendees to participate in Exchanges to share what the school district was doing well, where there were opportunities for improvement, and how the district could better communicate with its educational partners.

The district also made the Exchanges available on its website, allowing those unable to attend the town halls to participate and share their feedback.

Osceola’s sizeable Spanish-speaking population could easily interact with the district’s English speakers through our simultaneous translation feature—removing the language barrier that can sometimes marginalize community members. Dr. Shanoff was able to better understand his Spanish-speaking community’s specific needs and bring the whole community into one collaborative conversation to identify their common goals.

By using ThoughtExchange to tap into his community’s authentic perspectives, Dr. Shanoff:

• Got to know his community in record time
• Reduced the time his team spent collecting, sorting, and reporting on community engagements
• Quickly identified and articulated Osceola’s strategic plan goals
• Acted on his communication and collaboration goals with his community, and
• Built crucial community trust in his leadership

Dr. Shanoff’s team published the Exchange reports on Osceola’s website and shared the top thoughts in his 100-day plan. His team also shared the results with Osceola’s School Board, providing them with clear focus areas to kick off the district’s strategic planning process in March 2024.

And by tapping into his staff’s authentic perspectives, Dr. Shanoff has several areas to dig further into with his teachers—which he’ll address through more staff Exchanges.

This way, Dr. Shanoff can identify what will keep his teachers in the district and reference this data when meeting with the teachers' union. His teachers have also expressed interest in using ThoughtExchange in the classroom to engage students in their instruction.

Above all, using ThoughtExchange allows Dr. Shanoff to act on his goals of communication and collaboration with his community. He sees ThoughtExchange as a way to make meaningful connections with as many of Osceola’s educational partners as possible. He can hear each voice while understanding his district's wide range of perspectives.

In Dr. Shanoff’s opinion, this puts him in a position to make more supported and effective decisions for his community. He’s confident that he’s getting the complete picture of his district—and sees ThoughtExchange as an essential tool for his leadership at Osceola School District.