Hello Ann Arbor,

We are embarking on a Listen and Learn 2018 community engagement process.

The premise of the Listen and Learn: We are Ann Arbor process is straightforward: No one knows better the strengths and celebrations, the challenges and areas for improvement, dreams, and hopes for the future, than those individuals who live, work, and bring their children to attend the Ann Arbor Pubic Schools every day. The desired outcome of Listen & Learn 2018 is to better understand our Ann Arbor community, to share the progress we have made since 2013, and to align our school district improvement work with the direction, the needs, and the aspirations of our students, parents, staff, and community.

Between mid-February and May, 2018, we will tour each of Ann Arbor’s neighborhood public schools, visiting and engaging with students, parents, staff and community members in each of our 32 schools as well as in various other meetings with district and community groups across the Ann Arbor Community. In addition, all stakeholders will have an opportunity to engage via social media and with the Thought Exchange online conversational tool.

In these meetings, we will use a World Café approach (worldcafe.com) to facilitate a conversation around four critical questions:

• What do we celebrate in our schools and across the Ann Arbor Public Schools?
• Where do you see our opportunities for improvement?
• As we consider our future, what do we want and dream for our students and our schools in the Ann Arbor community?
• What else do we need to know and understand?

I hope that you will join me in sharing your thoughts about our Ann Arbor Public Schools: in face-to-face meetings at your neighborhood school, community group meetings, online via the Thought Exchange online conversation tool, or through various social media events via Twitter and Facebook Live. Your voice is important, and we want to hear from you.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this Ann Arbor community dialogue. We are coming together to better understand, as a community, the specific steps we can take to extend and enhance the quality for which Ann Arbor is already well known.

We know we can do better, and this community conversation is certain to illuminate the ways we can grow together. We have important work to accomplish together – after all, our children are counting on us.

Sincerely,

Jeanice Kerr Swift
Superintendent of Schools
Ann Arbor Public Schools