Mark Nolte, speaking as part of the ICAD Group's annual meeting, held this morning at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City.

The ICR region had plenty to celebrate over the past year, including its placement on several prominent "best places" rankings, some big acquisitions, the expansion of existing businesses like GEICO and innovative new technologies being developed at companies like Monarch Sport - but plenty of challenges remain, according to Mark Nolte, president of the Iowa City Area Development Group.

Speaking at the economic development organization's annual meeting this morning, he positioned his address as "appreciation without complacency," citing work the area has to do, whether it's dealing with the layoff of about 500 employees at Procter & Gamble, funding gaps at the University of Iowa, or building a better, brighter workforce from the ground up.

"What would it look like if the Iowa City are and the ICR region was known for having the most innovative approach to public education in the nation?" he asked, calling on leaders assembled at Big Grove Brewery, to help lead the charge. "What if our schools were known nationally for how they developed strong, confident, caring, empathetic, healthy, curious, creative problem solvers who are prepared to thrive in their lives?"

Answering his own question, Mr. Nolte said such an approach would help solve the region's workforce problem, end the struggle of many area families to make ends meet, and position the community to attract "the kind of people and companies we need."

Mr. Nolte said ICAD staff, in conjunction with the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, recently questioned business and community leaders and noted widespread frustration that the community lacks vision and an overarching goal to work towards. Through that process, the groups developed a list of issues needing attention from affordable housing to transportation.

"But the one area that made the most sense to gather momentum around in the business community was education," he continued. "If we're being honest, we as a state have a very traditional model for how we educate our young people in a time when our employers and our post-secondary schools are telling us, that's not serving the people who are walking through their doors."

About 37.5 percent of students in Iowa City Community School District are on free or reduced lunch, Mr. Nolte noted, a statistic that closely correlates with long-term academic success and well-being. At the same time, the interstate commerce companies ICAD works with currently have more than 850 open jobs with another 1,500 openings on the way. Complicating matters, students are graduating with skillsets that are misaligned with those employers need most.

"While we need to up our brand awareness and work to attract more people to come here and get more of our graduates to stay, our problems cannot be solved by marketing alone," he said. "The question we need to be asking is what can we do to make our product better? What can we do make companies want to be part of this community?"

Mr. Nolte said it is Corridor businesses that should be leading educational change, calling on leaders in the room to make it their legacy.

"If we work together to start making these changes, the results will come," he said. "Or we could just keep doing the same thing and ... we'll probably be fine. And we can watch some other region lead this innovation and we can watch our young people and entrepreneurs move there. ... Growth in and of itself is not a goal. Growth is a result of doing the right things."