Maranacook Area Schools/RSU #38

Dear Maranacook Area Schools Community,

This fall, people from across our district came together in a series of visioning sessions to help shape Maranacook Area Schools' next strategic plan. Thank you to everyone who took part.

The work began in August, when our District Leadership Team, made up of building and district administrators and the president of our staff association, held its first visioning session with our facilitators from the New England School Development Council (NESDEC). That same afternoon, our Community Planning Committee, seventeen residents drawn from all four member towns, met for its own session. In September and October, our staff held visioning sessions, and over four evenings, residents of Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield, and Wayne gathered in the Maranacook Community High School cafeteria for our community forums. Over the next week or so, students in grades 6–12 will take part in visioning sessions during advisory, so that the people our plan serves most directly have a voice in shaping it.

Each session asked the same core questions: what our schools do well, where we face challenges, and what we hope our students will experience in the years ahead. The sessions centered on small-group conversation, and the discussions were thoughtful, candid, and focused on what matters most: the education our students receive and the kind of district we want to be for them.

This work matters because a strategic plan gives us all a shared direction. Our last five-year plan concluded in 2024, and this is the right moment to look ahead together. The new plan will guide how we maintain and strengthen high-quality education across all our schools and will serve as a benchmark for measuring our progress. NESDEC is now gathering input from all these sessions so the plan reflects the full range of voices in our district.

If you were not able to attend a community forum or a staff visioning session, your voice still matters, and I hope you will add it. The same questions discussed in those sessions are available in a short online survey open to all RSU 38 staff and residents of our member towns. The survey opens Friday, October 16, at 5:00 p.m. and closes Tuesday, October 20, at 5:00 p.m.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMM67C6

In the coming months, the District Leadership Team and the Community Planning Committee will work through the themes that emerge from all of this input, with draft strategic objectives expected in December/January and a final plan presented to the School Board in March 2027. We will continue to share updates as the work moves forward.

Thank you for your continued commitment to our students and to a caring school community dedicated to excellence.