Teaming-up for Enhanced Communications

The Greater Manchester Chamber has been an ardent supporter of Manchester Proud since the movement’s founding three years ago.  And, Manchester Proud’s partnership with the Manchester School District continues to grow in depth and effectiveness as shared initiatives to realize the goals of the new strategic plan are undertaken.

So, it made good sense to all when Manchester Proud, the Chamber, and the District met to explore a collaborative approach to communications.  “There is so much good news to share about our kids and schools, and great progress is being made on the implementation of the Plan.  We need to work together to get the news out to our community.”  said Katie Labranche, a teacher on Manchester Proud’s Council.

The new partnership will be a two-way street, with the Manchester School District feeding timely content to the Manchester Proud/Chamber team for distribution through its channels, and Manchester Proud’s Teacher Engagement Work Group providing updates to the District for sharing with students, families, teachers, and staff.

“Our public schools are essential to Manchester’s future and they need the engagement and support of our community to thrive.   Clear, timely communications are critical to keeping us all informed and involved.”  Said Lauren Getts, the Chamber’s Director of Marketing and Communications.

A joint communications plan is already being prepared and news will soon be flowing through all channels, so stay tuned!

School-Community Partnerships:  Making Our Schools Great – Together!

Manchester Proud’s initiative to achieve Goal #3 of Manchester School District’s new strategic plan, “Make community partnerships systemic”,  is well underway.   Led by our Partnership Network Work Group, including school leaders, Board of School Committee members, teachers, and community business and organizational leaders, the Group has begun the mapping and assessment of community-provided programs and resources across all 22 schools.

Simultaneously, the Group is exploring models and thoughtfully considering “What should the role of our community be in optimizing “School” for all of our students in the 21st Century?”  Ultimately, the objective is to build a strategically aligned, sustainable network of school-community partnerships that supports all of our students and families and engenders community pride and “ownership” of our public schools.

Among expected benefits are:

  • Extended learning and career opportunities through enhanced lessons, projects, and internships
  • Educators’ professional development and curriculum enhancement through partnerships with local businesses
  • Alignment of youth-facing agencies to coordinate delivery of multi-tiered, system-wide supports for all learners
  • Promotion of workforce development through school-business partnerships

Celebrating Progress – A “Dashboard” to Monitor Plan Progress

May 14, 2018, was a milestone in the history of Manchester Proud.  On that evening we met with our Board of School Committee and proposed to undertake a community-based process for creating a new vision for the future of Manchester’s public schools.  Remarkably, the board granted its unanimous support and the work of Manchester Proud was officially launched.

Among Manchester Proud’s stipulations for funding and facilitating the strategic planning process, were that the new plan would be both “Practical and Aspirational”,  that “Definitive Goals” and “Accountability” would be defined, and that progress of the plan’s implementation would be monitored and regularly reported to the community.   We remained resolved in our beliefs that ongoing, objective assessment is essential to the achievement of plan goals and that clearly communicating the progress of plan implementation is needed to foster community engagement.

With this in mind, Manchester Proud is about to launch a Dashboard Work Group to assess the goals of the new strategic plan and determine what should be measured, and how.  The Group, including school leaders, Board of School Committee members, teachers, students, parents, Manchester Proud Council members, and representatives of the Greater Manchester Chamber and New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, will also explore examples of how best to communicate the status of achieving the Plan’s goals to everyone in our community.  The Group will be working toward the presentation of the new Dashboard in February 2021, the first anniversary of the new strategic plan’s approval.