SUPERINTENDENTS' MEMOS 2009

AUGUST 21, 2009

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NC Graduation Summit Invitation from State Superintendent June Atkinson

Dear Superintendents,

I am pleased to invite you to the North Carolina Graduation Summit to be held on Thursday, Oct. 22, at the McKimmon Center at N.C. State University in Raleigh. This Summit will act as a catalyst for key members of our communities to implement effective, research-based, and scalable strategies to improve graduation rates in our state.

At the Summit, participants will assemble in Leadership Teams consisting of three to five representatives from each county in North Carolina. I am inviting the superintendents from each of the state’s 115 school districts to serve on the team from your respective county to help spearhead a Community Action Workgroup focused on improving graduation rates in your region. Your team also will include representatives from the business sector, nonprofit and civic organizations, and local and state governments. These representatives will be selected by the Graduation Summit Steering Committee.

Your understanding of the issues facing our youth and your strong leadership within the community make you a perfect candidate to participate in this Summit challenge. Thanks in part to your efforts, our statewide four-year cohort graduation rate increased in 2009 to 71.7 percent, but there is still much work to do. Our hope is that you will take the valuable strategies you learn about at this event back to your community. From that point, we ask that you work with your team members to hold regional follow up summits to encourage others to get involved in increasing the number of students that graduate from high school.

Attached is a fact sheet with additional details about the event, as well as a registration form. Please note that participation in the Summit is by invitation only. If you are unable to attend, you may register a designee in your place. Please return the registration form to Communities In Schools of North Carolina by Tuesday, Sept. 22. We will be sending you information about your other team members after the registration deadline. Please contact Mark Carrington at 919-832-2700 or graduationsummit@cisnc.org if you have any questions.

Please join us for this important event. We look forward to hearing from you and appreciate all you continue to do on behalf of North Carolina’s 1.4 million public school students.

Regards,

June Atkinson

Fact Sheet and Registration Form
(doc, 37kb)