The Van-Far R-I Board of Education approved a new strategic improvement plan.

The five-year plan aims to make Van-Far a “destination district” in attracting talented teachers and administrators, Superintendent of Schools John Fortney told board members at the Oct. 21st meeting.

Goals outlined in the plan include offering salaries and benefits equal to or better than the top half of  comparable local districts, and filling all open jobs with “highly qualified” personnel and retaining 80 percent of new hires annually.

Administrators are gathering information from other districts in the region, and Fortney is working on setting up a salary schedule for non-certified employees.

Last year, the district increased base salaries for teachers by $1,000, Fortney said. Higher salaries help attract and retain staff, he said, but the district also needs to find ways to improve its benefits packages and hold the line on insurance costs.

“If I get $1,000 raise but my insurance goes up $1,100, I’ve lost $100,” he said.

The strategic plan requires the district to survey teachers on prioritizing benefits, as well as identifying other staff needs, such as supplies and training.

Funding is always a concern, he said, but two medical marijuana businesses slated to open in Vandalia will bring additional tax revenue. “Hopefully as we see those new jobs come in, we’ll also see some new housing construction,” he said.

The plan, which will be reviewed annually, also calls for increasing services for students with identified mental health needs, including setting up procedures for referring students for treatment and setting up partnerships with outside agencies. The district already works with one service provider, Fortney said, and will explore options for providing school-based services.

In other action, the district is implementing Traversa, a bus-mapping software system to map out daily bus routes and keep drivers up-to-date on daily route and pickup changes, transportation director Bill Allen told board members.

Allen is now setting up routes in the system which should go live in January. Tablets will be installed in all buses. As the system expands, administrators will be able to track buses in real time, and drivers and administrators will be able to communicate instantly in the event of an emergency, Fortney said.