Everyone knows there is a clear difference between merely having a plan … and actually following through with said plan.

It seems Nashua School District Superintendent Jahmal Mosley and his assistants spent an inordinate amount of time formulating the new five-year strategic plan.

“When I first applied for the position (as superintendent), I noticed the district didn’t have a plan. It was indicative of the things that were going on in the district at the time,” Mosley told our reporter this week. “We had a tremendous amount of chaos at the leadership level, and there wasn’t a real focus in terms of direction. The faculty and community were hungry for that level of direction for our kids.”

There are five goals in the strategic plan:

— Increase and monitor students’ academic growth utilizing building-based and district-wide instructional supports;

— Cultivate a safe and nurturing learning and working environment;

— Overhaul the district’s professional development infrastructure;

— Increase frequency of strategic partnerships and community communications; and

— Create a budget matrix that aligns district-wide priorities with future budget cycles.

“We were very conscientious in making sure we had five goals and not 500 goals, because 500 goals in strategic plan means you don’t have a plan,” Mosley said. “We are prioritizing these five goals over the next five years, under the umbrella of being a model district.”

The plan calls for the hiring of five additional English Language Learner (ELL) teachers. This comes after educators expressed concerns about being outnumbered in classrooms by students who don’t speak English by counts as high as 73 pupils for one teacher.

“Because of budget cuts over the years, the attrition has devastated this district,” Mosley said. “This plan is really signaling to the community, ‘We need help. We need more funding.'”

Other proposed personnel additions include: six assistant principals, four kindergarten paraeducators, 10.5 health teachers and 10 social workers.

“The history in this district has been, we start something new and then it fizzles out. What we’re saying in this plan is, it’s not going to fizzle out. It’s going to be done with fidelity,” Mosley added.

While reserving the right to object to spending we find truly exorbitant, we believe this is an overall sound plan. There is no way a student who is struggling just to learn basic English can thrive in science, math or social studies — and there is no way to expect a teacher with 73 students to be able to teach them much English.

Also, social workers are likely needed amid the ongoing opioid crisis because God only knows what some children are likely to encounter in their home lives.

We just ask Mosley and school officials to keep their spending increases to truly necessary expenditures.