Now that 2022 is upon us, work is underway at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to develop a new strategic plan to guide the district for the next six years.
“We just kicked off our steering committee for our strategic plan,” CHCCS superintendent Nyah Hamlett told attendees at an NAACP-hosted town hall last week.
“Strategic Plan 2027” will replace the district’s previous plan, which was crafted in 2018 by a committee of 20 community members under then-superintendent Pam Baldwin. The new steering committee is more than twice that size, with 47 members including seven students.
“We recognize that this is a great opportunity to reimagine what we want to see for CHCCS as a school district community,” Hamlett said.
While the old strategic plan focused on efforts to “empower, inspire, and engage,” Hamlett says the district’s new strategic plan will focus on equity – beginning with an “equity audit” that’s currently ongoing to identify key sources of inequality in the district.
To facilitate that focus on equity, CHCCS has already merged the department of equity into the department of family and community engagement. The new Office of Equity and Engagement is led by Rodney Trice.
“We really want to be intentional about not just talking about equity, but walking the talk and seeing equity in action,” Hamlett said of the merger. “And also making sure that we are engaging and going to and being with the communities that tend to be historically and traditionally marginalized.”
After completing the equity audit, the steering committee will work to develop new vision and mission statements – as well as a new “portrait of a graduate,” a vision for the knowledge, skills and attributes that a graduating student should have when they leave Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Along the way, Hamlett says the steering committee will be soliciting thoughts and ideas and feedback from everyone who’s connected to the schools. “There will be community stakeholder engagement groups (and) focus groups as well,” she said.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is partnering with the consulting firm Insight Education Group on the plan.
Hamlett says the goal is to present a finished proposal by June.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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