NNPS is on a Journey forward

Newport News Public Schools is looking forward to welcoming all students back to school in September. As we prepare for our students’ safe return to in-person instruction, we are also planning for the future.

Our five-year strategic plan, Journey 2025, is intended to engage the 4,500 dedicated members of the Newport News Public Schools team in the work of transforming our school division and public education into a system that truly meets the academic and social development needs of every student.

Journey 2025 was launched last year and was developed by a diverse committee of business and industry professionals, city and community leaders, and educators.

The plan is specifically designed to be transformative and forward thinking. It ensures that our school division will have a social and emotional curriculum, and it advances our digital transformation and blended learning.

Designed to be responsive to a rapidly changing global workforce, Journey 2025 serves as a call to action for our community to support equitable outcomes for every student, including expanded opportunities and access to rigorous coursework and workplace readiness opportunities.

The plan has five strategic goals to ensure that we get this important work completed:

• Student Success, which addresses academic achievement and excellence. To meet this goal, we will engage and challenge all students in authentic, rigorous, culturally relevant learning experiences.
• Student and Staff Wellness will create an environment that promotes the social, emotional and physical well-being of students and employees.
• Employee Expertise, where we will cultivate and celebrate a highly skilled and diverse employee workforce through professional development, coaching and other supports. Great school divisions emphasize continuous learning and growth. Our professional educators will remain on the cutting edge with the best and innovative practices.
• Enhanced Partnerships to encourage Journey 2025 to advance our efforts to establish supportive educational partners with local businesses and community and nonprofit organizations.
• Stewardship of School Division Resources, in which we will ensure that financial and human capital decisions focus on student and staff needs, organizational data and equitable practices. We are dedicated to transparency in matters of fiscal management.

There are two key items which will power this plan moving forward: the Newport News Profile of a Learner and our refined focus on equity.

Our Profile of a Learner incorporates the characteristics of the Virginia Profile of a Graduate: critical thinking, collaboration, communication and citizenship, while also emphasizing the qualities that our community values in our future graduates: leaders who are emotionally intelligent, academically prepared, resilient, innovators, equity minded and reflective.

Newport News Public Schools is a great place for students to succeed. I invite you to celebrate our achievements, and learn more about Journey 2025, our educational opportunities and how we are preparing all students to graduate college, career and citizen-ready. Join us for our virtual State of Schools Address this month. Visit www.nnschools.org for more details about this special event.