CHESAPEAKE — An internationally known strategic planner and education coach will put the newly formed Chesapeake Core Planning Team through its paces today as school officials take the first step in developing an overall strategic plan for the district.

Steve Barone, president of the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Transformation Systems Ltd., is conducting a morning orientation session with the 30-member team on how to create a strategic plan, how to accomplish those goals and measure their effectiveness. The session is at Ohio University Proctorville.

“He is going to walk people through the model we are going to use, what strategic planning is, what we hope to accomplish,” Dr. Scott Howard, Chesapeake school superintendent, said. “This is a learning meeting.”

About a year ago, an outside group was invited to analyze the Chesapeake system — its accomplishments and deficiencies.

“We commissioned an external group to come in with a fresh set of eyes to look at the school system,” Howard said.

Developing a formal plan was one of the analysts’ recommendations.

The next step was the formation of the planning team, made up of students, community members and staff. Its goal is to come up with a draft of a strategic plan by Nov. 21 and the completed document by the end of the month.

“Over the next six to eight months there will be other items put into place,” Howard said. “Each strategy will have an action plan on how to accomplish that strategy and a measurement team to customize a tool to measure its effectiveness.”

The objective is to present the plan to the entire school board for adoption in late summer.