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MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester Proud will deliver a draft of our community’s plan for the future of our schools to the Board of School Committee on Monday Jan. 27. This will allow board members time to review the plan and seek additional information before Manchester Proud asks the board to adopt a final plan at a Feb. 20, 2020 school board meeting.
Manchester Proud will post the draft plan on its website, manchesterproud.org, the following morning, Jan. 28, for the public to review. There will be an accompanying form on the website for community members to submit their questions and thoughts about the plan.
Manchester Proud will do its best to answer questions from the community that are received by February 12. Answers will be posted on Manchester Proud’s website.
Manchester Proud’s Community Planning Group will evaluate all additional feedback as it finalizes the plan for the Feb. 20 presentation to the school board, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Memorial High School. Community members are encouraged to attend that meeting and can RSVP by visiting https://rsvp.manchesterproud.
Work on this plan began two years ago with intensive community engagement led by our local partner, Reaching Higher NH that sought to identify what strengths and opportunities the people of Manchster saw in the city’s school district. That work included a community survey; door-to-door canvassing in all 12 city wards; 23 community-based listening sessions; and 39-school based listening sessions with teachers, families, school support staff, and students.
Our national educational planning partner, 2Revolutions, helped us identify what the people of Manchester believe graduates need to know and be able to do to be successful. The resulting “Portrait of a Graduate” became the foundation of our plan; each recommendation seeks to provide all students the supports and opportunities they need to be successful.
The plan we present to the Board of School Committee reflects the culmination of two years of research and deep community conversation from thousands of people in Manchester, including parents; students; seniors; school, and business, and community leaders.
The ideas ultimately included in the plan will be the product of that community input and prioritized by our Community Planning Group of teachers, parents, students, educators, and community members from Manchester, who met monthly for nearly a year. Before finalizing its list of ideas, the group asked for community feedback on the ideas through several community forums in December as well as online voting.
In those two years, Manchester Proud has grown from a conversation between a few people passionate about supporting our schools to a community-wide movement with more than 300 volunteers and thousands of supporters committed to our schools, students, and city. Our mission has always been and continues to be two-fold:
1. Create a plan that elevates our schools to create opportunities for success for all students
2. Foster a deeper and ongoing collaboration between our community and schools that recognizes an entire city thrives when its schools thrive.
