Dear Curriculum Leaders, I want to thank you for your participation in the monthly meetings and symposium series you selected for the 2017-18 school year. In our next Curriculum Leaders’ meeting on May 15, we will present to you the themes, suggestions and ideas for this coming school year based on the CLs’ discussions that we had during the January and March meetings.

Also on this  day, Heidi Larwick (Director, Connected Lane County) and I will be sharing a brief report, which contains a summary of conversations she and I had with all 16 superintendents and their leadership team. The focus of our visit was primarily to hear from district leaders how Connected Lane County and Lane ESD staff could support their hopes, plans and aspirations for their students in the area of Instruction, CTE/STEM, and other educational plans such as attendance, middle school to high school transition programs, etc.

A theme that you asked us to consider is to coalesce around common educational challenges and come together to think critically and creatively on how to best to go about leveraging our resources and expertise. Your suggestions align clearly with the concept of “shifting from isolated impact to collective impact,” and this is not merely a matter of encouraging more collaboration, it requires a systemic approach that focuses on the relationships between organizations and the progress toward shared objectives.

We look forward to a rich conversation on May 15th.