Kitchener - Monday night, Compass Kitchener, a citizens' advisory group, presented its second annual year-end report card to council which ranks the progress the city is making on achieving the community priorities identified in the City of Kitchener Strategic Plan.

Compass Kitchener, a small citizens' group of members of the community, creates and leads public-engagement processes to determine the community's vision and direction, with the goal of assisting council in establishing its four-year agenda based on that vision.

Each year, the advisory group reviews the city's work and produces a report card to both council and the citizens of Kitchener which ranks progress on six priorities identified by the community as critical to the city's future, including: Quality of Life, Leadership and Community Engagement, Diversity, Dynamic Downtown, Development and the Environment.

According to the report card, ''Kitchener is certainly on the right track as progress has been made on following most of the strategic directions set out in its 20-year plan.''

''It almost feels like the last day of school, waiting for these marks,'' said Mayor Carl Zehr. ''It's clear that positive and encouraging progress has been made in a number of areas; and we also see that some areas need improvement. The annual citizens' report card is a valuable method of showing us all of the great work that has taken place over the past year; and it is motivation to strive toward even greater levels of accomplishment.''

After reviewing various plans, strategies and supporting documents, interviewing staff and advisory committee chairs, Compass Kitchener assessed progress the city made in 2008 in each priority area and collectively assigned grades. Grades were assigned as a "star" rating out of a possible five stars.

According to the report card, the city received four out of five stars and ''met most expectations'' under Dynamic Downtown, Development and the Environment, receiving praise for initiatives such as its efforts to support existing businesses downtown; the completion of the growth management strategy; its commitment to innovative economic strategies in the life sciences and digital-media fields; and the updating of its strategic plan for the environment.

The city received three out of five stars under Quality of Life, Leadership and Community Engagement, and Diversity; with the highest marks given for initiatives such as the expanded Leisure Access Card program; work toward a comprehensive diversity strategy; and a review of the city's advisory committees.

Compass Kitchener: ''The results show room for improvement, but in its second year of a 20-year plan, Kitchener has made remarkable strides.''

While the grades presented in the report card measures the city's progress against the community, it does not attempt to measure everything that the city does in the course of a year. Compass Kitchener acknowledges that the city tackles and accomplishes many initiatives which are important but also outside of the scope of citizens' priorities.

The six community priorities were originally identified by several thousands of citizens who participated in the Environics survey in 2005 and the Who-are-you-Kitchener? campaign in 2006. Those priorities were first captured comprehensively - and brought to life with strategic directions for action -- in a Plan for A Healthy Kitchener, developed by Compass Kitchener and approved by Kitchener city council in late 2006.

Today, the community priorities are the focus of the city's new single, guiding strategy: the City of Kitchener Strategic Plan, which ensures they are at the heart of every decision the city makes and every dollar it spends.