Several dozen students, staff, parents/guardians and community members gathered in the Lower Merion High School cafeteria on January 28, 2026, for the third of four community input sessions to develop LMSD's 2026-2031 strategic plan. 

The meeting was facilitated by Melissa Smith and Dr. Megan Roberts of the Chester County Intermediate Unit. Facilitator Dr. Victor Shandor experienced travel delays due to snow and was unable to attend.

After a welcome from Superintendent Dr. Frank Ranelli, the session started with a review of the process so far, which included a survey and two community input sessions where work focused on identifying the mission, vision and core values, as well as the initial identification of strategic priorities.

The four strategic priorities developed with community input were:

• Academic Excellence and Growth
• Safe, supportive and inclusive schools
• Engagement and connected community
• Talent development and retention

The focus of this meeting was a deeper dive into those identified strategic priorities to identify which subcategories in each area were most important and to identify how improvement in these areas should be measured.

Those present divided into four groups, one for each strategic priority, with one focus area under that priority. Each group looked a focus area and identified the opportunities for improvement and ways to measure success in those areas. Then, each group moved to another focus area and repeated the process, building on the notes of the group that worked on that focus area before them, so that all groups worked on all the priorities and focus areas. The process was then repeated for the remaining strategic priorities.

Once feedback was gathered on all of the strategic priorities, participants conducted a gallery walk to review all of the comments that were shared for all four strategic priorities.

Prior to the next Community Input Session, the team from the CCIU will review all of the notes to create a draft of LMSD’s new 2026-2031 Strategic Plan, so that the draft plan can be reviewed at the next community meeting.

The final Strategic Plan Community Input Session will be held on March 3, 2026, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Lower Merion High School cafeteria.

For photos of the third meeting, click through the slideshow below.