Transforming the KCMSD into a district that works to provide educational achievement for all scholars isn't a fantasy that well wishing and positive thinking will make appear. But it is a reality that we have the collective power to create. To unleash that potency, we must first be aware of the current results and acknowledge our role in their creation: 1 in 4 KCMSD scholars is literate and numerate at grade level and we are responsible for having created that. Only when we fully own where we are (the current conversation & current results) can we then create where we want to be (the new conversation & new results).

As we accept responsibility for our district, the new conversation grows. Our scholar engagement, community engagement, faculty & administration, and governance cultures transform -- and along with them, new possibilities for each of our scholars emerge. Across the district, classroom by classroom, neighborhood meeting by neighborhood meeting, board meeting by board meeting, we hear the new conversation's urgent whisperings. As it grows louder, we see clearly "what's working", "what's not working/what's next" and hear the cultural transformation inherent in each.

You now have a choice: contribute to the dominant conversation by doing what you're already doing and, in so doing, ensure that we continue to create more of what we already have. Or commit to the creation of the new conversation -- the only path that leads to the transformation of our schools, our community and our region.