Welcome Back ETCN

By: Kathleen Porter - ETCN Executive Director

What a pleasure it is to welcome you all back for a new school year! As a consortium, we have a busy and exciting year ahead, with many opportunities to strengthen the ways we work together on behalf of our students and communities.

New Faces/New Places
As you may already know, we have lots of new faces joining our work.  And we have many familiar faces who are now in new places. Over the next several weeks in Around the Net, we’ll be highlighting these team members and the roles they’ll play across our consortium.

Regional Collaboration
Of course, I’m one of those familiar faces in a new place. After retiring from Poway USD at the end of June, I began a new role in July as Executive Director of our Education to Career Network. In this role, I’ll be focusing on building systems and capacity across the consortium, strengthening regional collaboration, and implementing our strategic plan.
Thanks to the great work of our team at our annual planning retreat in June, we begin this year with a refreshed strategic plan and a clear direction for our work together.
A significant part of our focus this year will be on timely communication, stronger regional connections, and building common understanding around our shared initiatives. To that end, you’ll notice a new format and schedule for Around the Net, the launch of our social media marketing campaign, and renewed opportunities for our job-alike groups, including data technicians, transition specialists, and career advisors, to regularly connect and collaborate.

Many of our teachers will also participate in regional job-alike collaboration through professional learning communities (PLCs), and we hope to expand those PLC opportunities into additional program areas this year and in the future. 

Save the Dates!
We’ve already set the dates for many of our consortium-wide events, so please mark your calendars:

• Paths to Palomar (Fall) — Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 9:00 AM–1:00 PM
• Education and Career Showcase — November 12, 2026, 6:00–8:00 PM (Virtual)
• Business and Community Forum — Friday, January 22, 2027, 9:00–11:30 AM
• Paths to Palomar (Spring) — Thursday, February 25, 2027 (Time TBD)
• Annual Planning Retreat — Tuesday and Wednesday, June 22–23, 2027

As we begin this new year, I am genuinely excited to continue this important work with all of you. Adult Education has been one of the great loves of my professional life, and I continue to be inspired by what happens when we work together across programs, schools, and districts.

The work we do truly changes life trajectories, not only for our students, but also for their families and our larger communities. I’m looking forward to all that we will accomplish together this year.

Welcome back!