* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Clarke
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
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Informational Hearing - Community Schools Initiative
FOR the purpose of calling on the Education Committee of the Baltimore City Council to convene a hearing with all interested parties to examine the current status of Baltimore City's Community Schools Initiative, and to determine how the City can best continue or expand its current level of support for the Initiative.
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Recitals
Community Schools are a strategy to leverage and direct services to children and their families right in their own neighborhood school. Baltimore currently has 18 Community Schools, funded by the City of Baltimore and City Schools. Each of these schools has a dedicated staffperson whose job it is to identify and coordinate volunteers and supportive services that allow students to perform better and create stronger schools and neighborhoods.
Partnerships between communities and schools connect children with the services they need. Last year, Community Schools coordinated 404 local partnerships with schools, providing services worth over $8.5 million at a cost of $1.1 million. This includes vision and dental screenings, tutoring and mentoring, enriching extracurricular activities, art and music instruction, direct food aid to families, and more.
Community Schools respond to the societal factors, family circumstances, poverty, and health problems that can affect the academic success or failure of our children.
Most Americans recognize that these factors, usually thought of as outside of a school's control, can greatly influence the success or failure of students. All schools know these factors must be dealt with. Community Schools have the ability to take action to bring a wide range of opportunities and supports to young people.
In these difficult financial times more and more families are struggling with serious problems that, unchecked, could make it much more difficult for their children to achieve their long term hopes and dreams. Fortunately, many government and private programs exist to aid families with these problems. Community schools is a deliberate model to connect services with children and help families to use education as the key to break out of a crushing cycle of poverty.
Community Schools seek to uplift whole neighborhoods by bringing the full range of public and private resources to bear on the critical problems that serve as barriers to the long term success of their youngest and most vulnerable residents. In order to build on these efforts and maximize their impact, it is important to note national research on the Community Schools successful model of public private partnerships, examine their successes, and measure the potential they hold to efficiently bring services to the students and families who need them. In tight funding times, we must maintain the strategies that best harness the resources of our non profit, business, and higher education sectors, as well as citizen volunteers, to help students succeed.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this Council calls on the Education Committee of the Baltimore City Council to convene a hearing with all interested parties to examine the current status of Baltimore City's Community Schools Initiative, and to determine how the City can best continue or expand its current level of support for this Initiative.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, the CEO of the Family League of Baltimore City, the Community Schools Citywide Coordinating Council, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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