Project Overview

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EXMI has partnered with Toledo Public Schools (TPS) for more than a decade to design its past two strategic plans and to support the development of the district’s next plan. Our work has focused on helping TPS define a clear mission, vision, values, and set of districtwide goals that reflect the priorities of students, staff, families, and the broader Toledo community.

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Approach

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For the most recent planning cycle, EXMI led an inclusive engagement process to test and refine strategic plan messaging with diverse stakeholder groups. We designed and facilitated ten focus groups using a custom protocol that allowed participants to share feedback in multiple formats, respond to peers, and prioritize ideas through structured activities.Participants included students, employees, families, business partners, community organizations, and other critical voices. The process generated rich qualitative data that EXMI analyzed through thematic coding, organizing insights by frequency, importance, and relevance to the district’s emerging direction.

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Toledo Public Schools staff recruited student, employee, and community participants for ten focus groups to gather feedback on the district draft strategic plan’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Stakeholders represented staff from all unions, families, community partners, and students. EXMI design the protocol for focus group facilitation.

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The protocol was intended to allow stakeholders the opportunity to share feedback in various forms, through multiple rounds of activities. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to engage with and respond to each other’s feedback and add stickers to ideas that they agreed with. EXMI used this protocol to organize findings by themes and response frequency. Once the stakeholder engagement process was complete, EXMI worked with the district to design a public-facing strategic plan.

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Client Testimonial

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“We brought in students. We brought staff members in. We bought community members in, our own cabinet, our workforce.” 

- Dr. Romules Durant, Superintendent

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Outcome

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Building on this input, EXMI created a comprehensive and public-facing strategic plan and website (tpsfuture.org) that clearly communicates district priorities, integrates authentic community perspectives, and offers a visually compelling and easy-to-navigate format for stakeholders. The final plan includes refined mission and vision statements, articulated values and objectives, and a board monitoring system that supports accountability and continuous improvement.

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Client Testimonial

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"EXMI brought exceptional facilitation and strategic thinking to ourwork at Toledo Public Schools. Their team guided complex conversations with clarity and purpose, grounding our planning in best practices from both the public and private sectors. The result was a strategic planning process that was inclusive, forward-looking, and deeply practical for our district.”

- Brian Murphy, Chief of Strategy and Organizational Development

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