DANVILLE — Four months of brainstorming, more than 100 responses and a community full of opinions have put Danville Local Schools one step closer to mapping its future.
Jason Snively, after nearly a decade as Danville superintendent, is looking for the community to help determine what comes next.
The 2026-27 school year marks 10 years since Snively became superintendent. When he arrived, the district was looking to make changes in academics and address facility needs that had been delayed.
“The board, and I think even the community, was anxious to make some changes, improve some academics and address some facility needs that had been put off,” Snively said. “Everyone was anxious to move forward.”
Snively said he has made the changes he could make on his own. The district’s focus is shifting toward sustaining the progress and refining what is already working.
“My personal motto here for our district is, ‘Preserving the past, promoting the present, preparing for the future,'” Snively said. “That’s what the strategic plan is really all about.”
Danville Schools released a survey on its Facebook page July 30 as the first step in developing the plan.
Community priorities determine district direction
The district leadership team spent about four months developing the survey. It will remain open through the end of August to give community members time to respond.
Snively said he invites everyone with a connection to Danville to participate, including alumni who no longer live in the area.
“It’s important to preserve the past that we can,” Snively said.
At the same time, the district can’t avoid some changes.
“I can’t preserve everything because if we’re going to move forward, some things have to change … I try to avoid the word ‘change,’ but some things have to be done differently,” Snively said.
At the time of this interview, 121 individuals had responded to the survey. Respondents included family members of students, bus drivers, teachers and custodians.
The survey asked respondents to identify their top three areas of focus for the district’s future. Curriculum and instruction ranked first, followed by financial sustainability and school culture.
Curriculum and instruction also ranked among the district’s priorities when Snively took the job.
“That tells me that it wasn’t just the board. The board was doing a great job of representing what the people truly wanted when they hired me,” Snively said.
One area Snively expected to rank higher was athletics and student club organizations. Only 16.5 percent of respondents selected that area among their top three priorities.
“That’s not to downplay athletics or student clubs and organizations, people believe that’s an asset. But we have to make sure we’re focused so that we can maintain those assets,” Snively said.
“If we don’t have quality curriculum and instruction, safe and secure facilities and financial sustainability, then we’re not going to be able to have those other things.”
Snively said the priorities identified in the survey are interconnected. However, the district cannot realistically work on all of them at once.
What happens next?
Once the survey closes, Snively said the district will use the results to form a strategic planning team of fewer than a dozen people.
The team will develop the strategic plan, while smaller squads will focus on the action steps needed to address each priority.
Snively said he prefers the word “teams” over “committees.” He wants the groups to focus on action rather than simply creating another layer of meetings.
If a staff member chooses to become part of a strategic planning team, and participate in activities that promote the plan, they can exchange that for a professional development day.
Flexibility is a key part of the plan’s design.
In the future, the district may return to the survey and pursue another area to work on. But right now, identifying three priorities to start with makes the project sustainable.
“We can’t … try to make all eight or 10 things better at the same time because we won’t get anything done,” Snively said.
The ultimate goal of the strategic plan, Snively said, is straightforward: sustain what the district is doing, refine it and involve as many community members as possible.
“I’m proud of (the survey). I think we’re going to get out of this survey what we intended,” Snively said.
