By: Barry Brensinger, Manchester Proud Coordinator

If our goal is to engage all of Manchester in the making of exceptional public schools…..

                Then we must communicate to inform, inspire, and hear all voices.

And, if our communications are to inspire and instill a sense of purpose…..

                Then we must convey our pride in the successes of the Manchester School District.

In this spirit of celebrating success, Manchester Proud recently partnered with our District’s Leaders and Board of School Committee to create, “Making Manchester’s Schools Great – Together!” – a video accounting of the positive impacts of “Our Community’s Plan for Manchester’s Future of Learning: Excellence and Equity for ALL Learners”, the District’s strategic plan.  The video aired to the public during Manchester’s Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting on the evening of April 5th and is now being shared across our community.

Portrayed by our students, teachers, school leaders, mayor, and Manchester Proud’s Community Partnerships Coordinator, Aimee Kereage, the messages communicated by the video are clear and compelling:

  • Manchester needs great public schools to create opportunities for everyone in our city to succeed in their futures.
  • “Our Community’s Plan” has proven to be an effective roadmap for moving us forward:
    • Growing Our Learners through student-centered, student-driven learning for both fundamental knowledge and 21st century skills.
    • Growing Our Educators by providing supportive programs and training to enable continued professional development.
    • Growing our System with District-wide advances in governance, technology, and communications.
  • We stand on the brink of once in a generation opportunity – a time to align our public schools with our needs and aspirations for the decades ahead.

As voiced by the video, Manchester’s public schools are our most vital source of the skilled workforce, creators, and leaders essential to grow our businesses, provide our healthcare, protect us, entertain us, and inspire us with their leadership.  Today, encouraged by ongoing and emerging progress, there is sound reason to believe that our aspirations for our students, schools, and community can be realized. Our calling is to unite as a community to shape relevant programs and policies and prudently invest in the staffing, resources, technologies, and facilities needed to optimize learning for all of our students.

If our public schools are essential to our futures and advantage everyone who calls Manchester home……

                Then now is the time for us to come together with the resolve to make them great!