A $20,000 long-range planning document and a recent theatrical performance will help Natrona County School District officials plan for the future needs of the students.

The district contracted with Denver-based Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning to help develop the document, which was acted out, instead of read, at the school board's work session on May 21 by Painted Past, a local acting troupe, at a cost of $780.

The scenarios were acted out as another way to inform district officials and the public about the document, Superintendent Jim Lowham said. Some people respond better to reading a document, while others may learn more through visually seeing it acted out, he said.

The district contracted last year with McREL, a nonprofit education and research development organization that serves seven states.

"The superintendent in Natrona County was interested in doing some work focused on the future of the school district," said Laura Lefkowits, vice president of policy and planning for McREL. "This is a different sort of planning methodology than what school districts are used to using."

McREL's work with the district helped identify four possible future scenarios concerning student engagement and community support.

For each of the scenarios, the district is faced with either high or low student engagement and high or low community support, the document indicated. Each one has ways to address the potential problems.

"Scenario planning encourages you to keep track of your environment," Lowham said. "The idea is not to have predictions but to get an organization to think about what they should be planning for the future."

The planning looked not only at internal factors but external ones and how they affect the district, Lowham said.

"This gives you a framework on how to proceed," said Kelly Eastes, district community partnerships manager. "It's not set ways to address a problem. The challenge is how to make your organization flexible."

Although McREL helped, Lefkowits said the end product was the result of the district's hard work. The district was the one that decided that student engagement and public support would be important.

"We taught them the methodology that they used to come up with those critical uncertainties," Lefkowits said. "We facilitated the process that lead them to coming up with those critical uncertainties and helped them write the scenarios that they are now using in their planning."

Lefkowits said it's not the type of process that someone from the outside can come in and do for a district, which is why McREL served as facilitators.

"It's a long-term process and it takes a lot of commitment from the school district," Lefkowits said. "This is very much a Natrona County product."

Reach reporter Aimee Tabor at (307) 266-0593 or aimee.tabor@casperstartribune.net

To see a video of the actors performing for the school board, please click here.