On behalf of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, I am honored to introduce our three-year strategic goals (please see below).
There are many throughout our state and nation who point to our school district as a model for educational excellence. From the outside, it is easy to see why that would be the case. Our measurables – test scores, graduation rates, SAT results, etc. – compare favorably with the best school districts anywhere.
However, a deeper look reveals many areas desperately needing improvement. Our children deserve an excellent education – all of our children. That is where we miss the mark. Our success, however defined, varies greatly from child to child. Some leave our district entirely unprepared for life after high school.
These new goals are designed to keep, and build upon, those things we do well. They also address those areas that need to be improved.
Our amazing community contributed significantly to the design of these goals. Without the help of our stakeholders, we could not have created this roadmap that will guide our work for the next three years. Our community-wide survey included over 1,000 responses. We also conducted 44 focus groups with students, staff and community partners. We met with principals, assistant principals and local business leaders. Every School Improvement Team hosted a public table top conversation. We collected specific feedback from representatives of the Teacher Advisory Council, Student Advisory Council, NAACP, and the UNC Education Policy Initiative. The amount of data from these efforts was massive. Altogether, we collected approximately 600 pages of input.
All of these meetings, along with the survey, were designed to seek out answers to four important questions:
1. How do we define student success?
2. What is working well in our schools/district?
3. What needs to be changed?
4. What goals we should include in the new plan?
A strategic planning committee made up of a cross-section of our school district and community was assembled to assist in the gathering and analysis of the data. Their meetings began in September and concluded in April. We greatly appreciate their dedication to the project and attention to detail.
I commit to you that we will use these goals to elevate the education we provide to ALL students. I invite you to hold us accountable to this work. Our success is entirely dependent upon the investment of our whole team – staff, students, parents, business leaders, elected officials and all of Carrboro and Chapel Hill.
Thank you for entrusting us with your children’s education. It is an honor to serve as your superintendent.
Pam Baldwin
Pam Baldwin
