Burke County Public Schools is mapping out a strategic plan for the future and seeking community input is part of the process. The school system invites business leaders, elected officials, parents, students, teachers and school staff to get involved in the Burke County Public Schools District Strategic Plan 2022 - A Roadmap for Our Schools and Community. The school district will hold town hall meetings and conduct surveys to help evaluate goals and objectives and assess strengths and opportunities. The results will direct the district's strategic plan for 2017 through 2022. The focus of this fact-finding quest includes aligning district priorities with community expectations, making great community relationships even better, and exploring stakeholder ideas on how to best prepare students for the future. Burke County Public Schools will take the next six months to map out the new strategic plan. The times and locations of the town hall meetings and details on the survey process will be announced soon.

Foothills Conservancy of NC hosts a clean-up project later this week on John's River. A river loat and clean-up outing called 'Erase the Waste' will be held Friday. The public is invited to join the annual event to help clean the river while strolling down a five-mile stretch of its waters in Burke and Caldwell Counties; near where the John's River and Wilson Creek meet. The outing begins at 8:30am and runs until 4pm: however, an RSVP is required by tomorrow. For additional details, call Foothills Conservancy at 828-437-9930. The Morganton based land-trust serves Burke, McDowell, Rutherford, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Alexander, and Lincoln Counties.

The Catawba County Board of Commissioners was named winner of one of this year's County Government Partnership Awards from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. The award is one of five given regionally across North Carolina each year. According to George Place, Director of the Cooperative Extension-Catawba Center, "collaboration with the Catawba County government has resulted in numerous successes toward the Cooperative Extension Service's goal of educating the public, developing youth, preserving farmland, and bolstering a local food system." The award was presented August 11th at the annual North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Conference in Winston-Salem.