Our vision is to be the best choice in public education. We envision a future when every time a student, parent, or educator chooses a school district, we are the best choice they can make. We have a mission to Learn, Work, and Lead. Our commitment is to be the best place to learn, to work, and to lead. Every day, we create environments so that everyone associated with the district is always learning, working, and leading us to be the best.

District 49’s board-approved strategic priorities are integral to the vision and mission, providing unified goals and strategies to prepare students to achieve like never before. The strategic plan is organized around a big rocks metaphor, which comes from the work of Stephen Covey.

Covey illustrated that if you fill your life with the small things, trivial things, then you might not have room for what's really important, what he called the big rocks. But if you first fill your life with what's most important – the big rocks – and add other things around them, the medium-sized rocks, and finally work in the pebbles, everything better fits together.

District 49 has applied this metaphor in its strategic priorities, which identifies the district's Big Rocks. These strategic initiatives will be emphasized over the next three to five years, representing the district’s commitment to its community. District 49 will use these six rocks as the foundation for building an excellent future with its staff, students, and the greater community.