In the early 1990s, an education foundation, known as the Rowan-Salisbury Educational Foundation, Inc. (RSEF), was established to support public education and the children of Rowan County by awarding grants to teachers for projects not ordinarily funded by the school system. After a little over a decade, it became obvious that times were changing, necessitating additional community involvement and support of our education system.

In 2001, The Rowan County Chamber of Commerce identified the need to form an education advocacy organization. Through their Focus Forward campaign, they committed $110,000 toward launching a new, independent, citizen-led organization – Rowan Partners for Education (RPE).

RSEF and RPE merged at the end of 2003 and, with assistance from the Public School Forum, led early citizen task force meetings in which community leaders from across the county participated. Next, valuable information was collected, through community focus groups and a system-wide teacher survey, which was instrumental in developing initial priorities.

The top challenges to local public education identified through the focus groups (conducted from February through April 2004) are:

• Hire, train, and retain the best of the best personnel
• Increase parental engagement, support, and empowerment
• Improve the high school achievement level
• Decrease the high school drop-out rate

As advocates for the school system -- not individual schools – the purpose of RPE is to actively listen to citizen leaders. Then, using facts only, facilitate collaboration and consensus to achieve improvements in public education.

Our success affects all community members, even those without school-aged children. Communities who place a strong emphasis on quality education will be in a much better competitive position to attract employers and draw skilled workers which will, in turn, strengthen our economy.