WATERVILLE — Building on a well-attended January community meeting as part of its data collection phase, the Waterville SPaRC (Strengthening, Partnering, and Reinforcing Community) education initiative hosted a Community Data Interpretation event on Feb. 26 at The ELM, according to a news release from the initiative.
During the event, roughly 140 people from the Waterville community came together to review a broad range of data and identify shared priorities for how the Waterville community can work together to build on Waterville’s strengths and transform the city into a national model of educational excellence. There were 100 targeted invitees which represented the full breadth of Waterville education and community stakeholders including educators, parents, students, public officials, business leaders, health and other service providers, faith leaders, youth and senior programs. There also were 50 additional open slots for anyone else who wanted to participate, according to the release.
The community-wide education initiative consists of several local education partners including Waterville Public Schools, Educare Central Maine, Kennebec Valley Community College, Thomas College, Colby College, Mid-Maine Technical Center and Mid-Maine Regional Adult Community Education. SPaRC’s mission is to make Waterville a nationally recognized hub of education excellence.
In January, SPaRC held a well-attended community meeting to introduce the initiative and collect a broad array of perspectives on the strength in the Waterville education system, barriers, and bold ideas for improving the system for all. It was open to all who live or work in Waterville. The initiative is working with American Institutes for Research, a nationally recognized nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization, to help facilitate the community-wide process of data collection, analysis and strategic planning. Beyond the Community Meeting results, CDI participants reviewed summaries of socio-economic and educational data along with results from numerous focus groups and interviews conducted throughout Waterville in December and January, according to the release.
“There are many things that excite me about the SPaRC initiative. But one is that we’ve never had the whole education system at the table quite like this before,” said Waterville superintendent Eric Haley. “At the Community Data Interpretation, we had all those perspectives and broader community perspectives to together determine what these data are telling us, where they point us. This perspective and direction has to come from the collective “us” here in Waterville,” according to the release.
Based on analysis from the Community Data Interpretation event, along with innovation exercises and other community engagements, the SPaRC team will present an action plan by the spring.
For more information, visit WatervilleSPaRC.org.
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