IMPACT Education Summit

A Logistics Committee was established and consisted of representatives from each school district, both colleges, and a representative from the Batesville Area Chamber which met weekly for 2 hours from April - August to develop and execute a plan for all logistics related to the education summit including, but not limited to: parking, meals, snacks, nametags, signage, set-up, seating assignments, room assignments, facility needs, registration and communication with attendees, audio/visual needs for the day, etc.

The logistics committee was free to invite expert advisors to meetings as needed to complete their planning process.

Several google sheet templates were provided including an attendee list, budget, and set-up details.

A Content Committee was also established and consisted of representatives from each school district, both colleges, and a representative from the Batesville Area Chamber which met weekly for 2 hours from April - August to develop and execute a plan for all content presented and discussed at the education summit in alignment with the IMPACT Independence County strategic plan. This included: collection of data for baseline insight, creating topic content for presentations, securing presenters for introduction of topic, approving facilitation questions for roundtable discussions, securing facilitators to lead discussions, creation of process that allowed schools to summarize and present content, etc.

Each school district was asked to have present and make available all day long a reasonable number of: teachers, administrators, classified staff, and parents from all levels of education. Students in 6th grade and above were also requested from each school district.

Both colleges were asked to be present and make available all day long: administrators that make program decisions and staff that facilitate transfer, admissions, and other processes that involve smooth K-12 – higher education transitions including financial aid. 

The top ten largest employers of Independence County were asked to be present and make available a representative from lunch until the end of the day.

Educational non-profits, state agency representatives, and board members of various community organizations were invited to attend as observers of topic presentations and roundtable discussions.

The Independence County Public Education Foundation Board of Directors was asked to be present and available all day long for observation, introduction, and presentations at the end of the day.

All participants were seated together in a ballroom to hear data insights and presentations given by expert presenters, which introduced each topic. This was referred to as an assembly. Once a topic and its data for Independence County had been presented, participants were dismissed for their “basecamp” where only those from their school were present to participate in roundtable, facilitator led discussions. This model repeated itself for three sessions. 

At the end of the day all participants except for those serving on school leadership teams were dismissed. The school leadership teams remained to summarize their school’s input. The initial schedule had allowed for presentations; however, after finishing the day our schools had so many ideas and information to sort through, IMPACT  and school leaders thought it best to delay presentations until they had more time to develop thoughts and ideas.

Following Labor day, presentations were made by each district on their priorities for the new school year, specific to the shared community vision for education in Independence County.