I am grateful to be in a county where the community supports our schools and understands the importance of public education to our overall economic health. I am grateful for our wonderful staff who have demonstrated a commitment to our students along with amazing resilience through all the challenges of the past four years.  Most importantly, I am grateful to our students who consistently amaze me with their creativity and eagerness to make a difference in our world. 

Our vision of empowering our students to be life-long learners able to contribute in a changing, complex society drives everything we do. This year we are focused on three key priorities that we feel will help us continue to meet our vision: 

• Providing pathways to students that will allow them to graduate ready for a career, post-secondary opportunities or to serve our country.

• Ensuring that our staff, especially school-based staff, feel heard and supported.

• Connecting with the entire community to ensure our school system meets their expectations as well as is aware of all the great things happening in our system. 

In addition to these priorities, I am working to ensure that all the work we do makes sense to our staff, connects our schools to one another as well as the system and provides a sense of coherence. I plan to do this by: 

• Focusing on connecting our various efforts and frameworks to one another in a way staff understands.

• Ensuring both schools and the school system narrows their focus to a few key priorities that will drive our work this year.

• Assessing our efforts and using that assessment to drive continuous improvement.  

On a practical level this means, we will narrow our focus and allow schools to take the lead in driving change in our system by looking at their unique needs and then developing plans that are designed to ensure student success. We will use the NC Portrait of a Graduate as our unifying framework and ultimate vision of success. 

Thank you for joining me on this journey to ensure our school system is reflective of the communities’ needs and provides our students with opportunities to be the best versions of themselves.