3 minute read
Manchester Proud
Civic Group Moves Forward with Plan for City’s Schools
When Manchester Proud first developed a strategic plan to improve the city’s schools nearly three years ago, organizers were optimistic it would be welcomed by administrators and city residents and then put into action.
At a community meeting this past winter, that hope was overwhelmingly confirmed.
On Feb. 20, the city’s school board voted 12-1 to accept, “with gratitude,” Manchester Proud’s recommendations, a road map designed to guide educators for the next decade.
“I truly believe it was a milestone night for the city of Manchester and our schools,” says Manchester Proud Coordinator Barry Brensinger. “We had a nearly packed house at Memorial High School and received the overwhelming support of the board, and I believe that’s attributable to two things: One is that from the outset, Manchester Proud was determined to make this a community initiative, a community movement, and we had extraordinary community engagement and involvement in the process.”
The group, a community-based, collaborative movement was initially formed in late 2017. Part of the initial motivation to create Manchester Proud came from a need to keep the city’s recent momentum moving forward. Thriving cultural, recreation, nonprofit, health care and entertainment sectors had grown, and the idea was to keep the city’s schools on pace. The group worked to create a vision and to develop a five-year plan for the district based on community input.
“If you added all the 400 meetings up with the polls and interviews and listening sessions and community forums, we had 10,000 people participate in the process that led up to the evening of Feb. 20,” Brensinger says. “We had extraordinary community engagement coupled with the great work of our community planning group.”
Thriving cultural, recreation, nonprofit, health care and entertainment sectors had grown, but the business sector had begun to feel some resistance when it came to hiring — potential candidates
weren’t necessarily enthusiastic about sending their children to Manchester public schools. Manchester Proud set out to change that.
Among the goals:
- Eliminate leveling based on student past performance
- Develop magnet schools
- Give student school board representatives voting rights (except for HR or personnel issues)
- Improve the school board’s working culture and organization
Manchester Proud is also working to create a separate Manchester Schools Foundation to manage community/ school partnerships and initiatives. The move would allow partnerships between the city’s 22 schools and businesses and nonprofits to be more efficient through resource mapping to “optimize the good work being done.” The group has raised funds to hire a manager for that position.
“The potential is extraordinary,” Brensinger says.
Another goal of Manchester Proud’s plan is to ensure equity and inclusiveness of all the district’s students.
“We have a significant number of kids in the district, nearly half, who are minorities or children of color, and if the district is going to achieve the level of excellence we all aspire to, anyone who knows about or cares about Manchester schools aspires to, all of its work has to be equitable for all of its kids and families,” Brensinger says. “Manchester Proud has an initiative to drive that forward. It’s looking to enable the district to hire a director of equity and to develop the programs, trainings and supports needed to ensure that work is undertaken successfully across the district in an organized and systemic way.”
Progress in implementing the plan has been made, despite operating under the restrictions of a worldwide pandemic. Just weeks after it was approved by the Board of School Committee, it became clear the virus had arrived, Brensinger says, and that it was going to have an impact on the community, country and world.
“In spite of that, a lot of progress has been made with even more progress underway,” he says.
Brensinger cites support from partners ranging from the Greater Manchester Chamber (“The Chamber has been an extraordinary partner and we’re deeply appreciative of the support from the Chamber board, staff and membership as enablers of this work,”) and Manchester Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt.
“He has been really an extraordinary partner,” Brensinger says. “I think his vision for the district and his personal passions about education and our kids are directly aligned with the mission and aspirations of Manchester Proud. There’s been great synergies between how we think and value and what we hope to accomplish. It’s led to a really solid partnership. It could not have been done without his support. It’s led to a great partnership.”
Manchester Proud Coordinator Barry Brensinger (Photo by Allegra Boverman)
