Chapter I: Educational Vision, Mission, and Goals

The Smyth County School Board believes that the school system should be an effective, student-centered organization which operates in such a way as to encourage and enable all employees, parents, and the community to make positive contributions to the system and to promote learning by all students. The school board believes that Smyth County's most important investment in the present and in the future is to provide for all students an education based upon excellence and equity.

The school board has a vision of education which maintains that every student can learn and that each student has unique talents which schools must identify and develop. The mission of the school board is to ensure for all students in Smyth County an education that enables them to become informed and productive citizens in a democratic society.

The school board fully subscribes to the goals of public education in Virginia as set by the Virginia Board of Education, and will work to ensure that these goals are met. The goals of public education in Virginia are based on the concept that educational excellence and equity are promoted by establishing a program that specifies rigorous standards for each and every student.

Schools will be prepared to receive and educate each student such that:

1. Al students will demonstrate competence in a core of expected standards of learning;
2. All students will be aware of the importance of individual and shared responsibilities to the community in an increasingly global society; and
3. All graduates will be prepared to enter immediately and continue in the skilled work force, or to enter and complete further academic and technical education.

Schools have a unique responsibility for achieving these goals and for making such a collaborative effort with families, businesses, and the community.