Vision:

Our vision is to create a community which works together so all Pasco County students will reach their highest potential. To realize this vision, the District School Board of Pasco County began strategic planning for the future a decade ago, initiating a design for the restructuring of schools described in a document called Pasco 2001: A Community of Connected Schools. In order to provide a continued future focus for district and school planning, as well as a conceptual model for schooling in the 21st Century, this new document has been developed entitled Pasco's Vision: A Community of Connected Schools.

Pasco's Vision: A Community of Connected Schools begins by chronicling the original philosophical tenets of the district's vision and planning activities. It follows with a description of the extension of those initial ideas and strategies into three Guiding Principles and Key Concepts that are intended to update the district's strategic plan for designing its schools and its programs and services for students and the community. The articulation of this vision is based on a rationale that includes recent and relevant research on best practices in teaching and learning as well as the acknowledged social, legislative, and political pressures for reform. A discussion of this rationale is found in the second section of this document.

The remaining sections of this document are descriptions that are intended to provide further details of what future graduates from the Pasco County School District should expect to know and be able to do. It outlines the kinds of structures, programs, and services that will be available to students and their families to help them achieve these high standards. These descriptions are written in the present tense so that readers can more easily picture the future of schools in the context of a rapidly growing and changing environment.

Two of the fundamental principles envisioned in the original strategic plan are the concepts of Continuous Progress and Continuity of Caring. These two Guiding Principles remain important elements of Pasco's Vision: A Community of Connected Schools. Continuous Progress enables students to work at a rate that makes the accomplishment of high standards both challenging and achievable, while Continuity of Caring provides programs which meet the full range of academic and developmental needs of all students throughout the prekindergarten through adult educational experience. While these two guiding principles are still critical elements of the district's vision, they have now been expanded to include a third Ensuring Equity and Excellence. Ensuring Equity and Excellence demands the provision of educational experiences for all students to have the opportunity to achieve high standards. This guiding principle reiterates the importance of equitable access to successful learning opportunities for all students, regardless of their personal socio-economic status, cultural heritage, cognitive level, or physical ability.