索尔兹伯里,N.C. – 教育al and county leaders in Rowan County officially joined forces to elevate learning for students of all ages across the community as the Rowan 教育 Collaborative shared its first official update to the community on April 21 on 罗文-卡巴鲁斯社区学院’s North Campus in Salisbury.
The first-of-its-kind community partnership is a consortium of leaders from Rowan-Salisbury Schools, 罗文-卡巴鲁斯社区学院, 卡托巴语学院, 利文斯通学院, 罗文县政府, 和罗文经济发展委员会.
“We are smarter, stronger and better together,” said Greg Edds, Rowan County Commission chair. “By aligning ourselves behind the common goal of creating a robust culture of learning, we can do more and achieve more for our students and our community. We have outstanding resources in Rowan County, and we want to tap into the strengths of each. Instead of silos of excellence, we want to create an alliance of excellence.”
Members began meeting in 2019 to design with the framework and vision for the Rowan 教育 Collaborative, with the mission of offering more and better opportunities for learning and success for students of all ages.
“We set out with the ambition to create an agile talent framework that promotes prosperity for businesses and residents. We want to link and leverage the resources of our educational institutions so that students have a seamless experience moving from the K-12 system to 罗文-卡巴鲁斯社区学院 to Catawba or Livingstone in degree programs that are relevant to our community’s workforce development needs,” said 罗文-卡巴鲁斯社区学院 Vice President of 企业 and 继续教育 Craig Lamb and facilitator for the group.
The Rowan 教育 Collaborative aims to create a comprehensive, forward-thinking plan that focuses on education as a driver of economic prosperity and personal success. 一些伙伴关系已经到位, including college classes for high school students, internships and job shadowing programs that benefit both students and local employers, and articulation agreements between local educational institutions that allow area students to pursue their studies without leaving the county.
The first testament to the group’s work is a $45 million bond referendum that the public supported in March 2020. 由于公众的支持, 罗文-卡巴鲁斯社区学院 plans to expand and enhance programs including welding, 加工, 汽车技术, all of which are related directly to the county’s workforce and economic development needs. A portion of the bond package is planned to fund facilities for Rowan 早期的菲律宾十大网赌网站 and high school students and a first-of-its kind decontamination center to train firefighters in critical safety procedures.
另外, 卡托巴语学院 and Rowan-Cabarrus have joined forces to create the “Learn Local, Grow Local” transfer agreement that enables Rowan-Cabarrus graduates to transfer with junior standing into more than 30 programs and conversations are in place to create similar agreements with 利文斯通学院.
The group continued to meet throughout the pandemic and networked to partner on critical resources. 利文斯通学院 partnered with Rowan-Cabarrus to offer on-campus COVID-19 testing for students, employees and the community throughout the pandemic.
“We have started the ball rolling, but there is still work to be done,” Edds said. “我们的目标是继续有意为之, 战略, data-driven creation of a holistic learning community in Rowan County that leads to elevated student performance, 为我们的公民提供丰富的就业机会, and a pipeline of prepared workers to attract even more employers to our area.”
罗文教育合作团队包括:
- 菲律宾十大网赌网站-博士. Carol Spalding, Jonathan Chamberlain, Sarah Devlin, Ken Ingle, Craig Lamb, Dr. Michael Quillen and 校董会 Chair Carl Short, Jr.
- 罗文县政府 – Aaron Church, Greg Edds and Jim Greene
- Rowan Economic Development Commission – Rod Crider
- 罗文-索尔兹伯里学校-博士. 杰森·加德纳博士. Andrew Smith, Anthony Vann and Board of 教育 Chair Dean Hunter
- 卡托巴学院-博士. 大卫·尼尔森，德鲁·戴维斯和大卫·戴维斯博士. 康斯坦斯阴暗的
- 利文斯通学院-博士. 吉米·詹金斯和皮特·蒂格
“教育 is the best investment a person can make in their future, and it’s the best investment we can make as a county in the future of our citizens,吉姆·格林说, 罗文县委员会副主席. “With the Rowan 教育 Collaborative in place, Rowan County citizens can count on abundant opportunities and bright futures.”
For more information about the Rowan 教育 Collaborative, contact Sarah Devlin at 莎拉.devlin@ngskmc-eis.net.