community involvement committee taking shape

One of the first important deadlines is facing us...organizing the Community Involvement Committee. This committee is one of the "big ideas" in our Strategic Plan since these individuals will take the lead on the Town Learning Community discussion.

The work of this committee is to "connect" with others in the town and "network" with adults in Cumberland who can support learning for our students. Is it a big responsibility...yes! Is this a chance to create a new framework for the way in which we view the education of students in the Cumberland schools...absolutely!

You already know the folks who should be on this inaugural committee since we live with them and work with them. They stand out because they have a natural ability to collaborate with others and a unique skill to draw people toward them. Perhaps it's their enthusiasm or ability to relate to others or a confidence that this person can get the job done!

Please think about the friends, neighbors, teachers and other professionals that you know who fit this description. Then it's simple...all you need to do to nominate an individual for consideration for the Community Involvement Committee is email his/her name to donna.morelle@cumberlandschools.org.

Don't delay! Our first meeting of this committee will be in early December.

common language key to collaborating

I've been thinking a lot about the themes in our strategic plan, especially the role of the strategic planning committee in creating momentum for the "big ideas" we have established. There are many pathways that we have put in motion to leverage improvements in student learning in the distict, but I'm wondering now about next steps.

The emails from Tom, Rosemary and Lisa about dual enrollment made me realize that its important to have a shared understanding of the common language we are using. I'm hoping this blog can be a place for us to create that shared understanding and keep our dialogue alive, as well as have a repository of the artifacts we find that support our plan.

I'm giving it a jump start by creating a list of references from the the links we created in our strategic plan. Hope you find this useful!