by | October 7, 2011

An Opportunity for You Could be a Great Opportunity for CIS South Central Texas

Is there a chance you’ve been thinking about purchasing land in the beautiful Texas Hill Country? Would you also like to show your support for Communities In Schools while doing so? Our sister CIS in New Braunfels, TX has the opportunity to be the beneficiary of the proceeds of the “Live Beyond Challenge”. This is a monthly event that partners Copper Ridge (a beautiful Texas Hill Country community featuring 1 to 3 acre parcels situated just outside New Braunfels, Texas) and local non-profit organizations with the common goal of hosting monthly events focused on giving back to the community. Copper Ridge has agreed to donate $1,000 from every land purchase made during the Live Beyond Challenge event on November 5, 2011 to Communities In Schools of South Central Texas. Our friends at Copper Ridge tell us that most of their buyers come from the Houston area, folks who are looking to buy some land in a great community situated in between San Antonio and Austin.

Coincidentally this event at Copper Ridge (Saturday, November 5) also falls on the first weekend of Wurstfest (a unique celebration rich in German culture and full of Texas fun located in beautiful New Braunfels, Texas). So you can make a weekend getaway out of it!

For more details, please contact Christine Watson at Christine@cissouthcentraltexas.org or visit http://www.copperridgetx.com.

Submitted by: A. Randolph

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by | October 7, 2011

Halliburton helps Houston’s kids stay in school

Communities In Schools of Houston is thrilled to receive $100,000 from the
Halliburton’s generosity and spirit of community will enable CIS to touch the lives of over 30,000 Houston children this year.  Thank you Halliburton for joining us in the mission to help children stay in school!

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by | October 4, 2011

Communities In Schools of Houston Chosen as One of the 2011 Halliburton Golf Tournament Charities

Communities in Schools Houston is grateful to be among the charities selected to benefit from Halliburton’s Charity Golf Tournament.  Over its history, this tournament has given nearly $4 million to local and international charities dedicated to an array of causes.  As part of Halliburton’s commitment to the community, each year, the company partners with vendors, suppliers and employees to host this well-attended event here in Houston.  And “well-attended” is an understatement, as already the team sponsorships, representing an impressive list of the city’s corporate, legal and banking communities, are all spoken for.

This year’s tournament will take place at The Clubs of Kingwood, with a 9:00 a.m. shot gun start. The reward ceremony and buffet lunch will begin at 2:30 p.m.

This year Halliburton will distribute proceeds from the tournament to 15 charities.   Here is why Communities In Schools Houston is one of them. CIS Houston has received a four-star rating from Charitiy Navigator for two years in a row and CIS has been determined to be the most effective drop-out prevention program in the nation.

Go HERE to learn how to get involved in Halliburton’s Charity Golf Tournament.

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by | September 28, 2011

Meeting Up With National: CIS Houston Board Member Sees The Big Picture

Bill Milliken, CIS Visionary and Founder...and me!

The CIS national board of directors hosted several of it’s city affiliates from across the country for a Leadership Meeting and Board-to-Board Convening. The two-day event took place on the eve of the CIS annual board meeting.  I had the absolute pleasure of accompanying our Executive Director, Cynthia Clay Briggs, to New York for the meetings, which was a pow-wow of other executive directors, board chairs and members so that we could connect (and reconnect) with leaders from all over the country.

On Thursday, we focused our discussions on best practices and strategies for future growth and sustainability. Special attention was paid to the Total Quality Systems Standards, which were adopted by the national board to provide CIS affiliates with a common blueprint for establishing and sustaining the effective ways we impact the lives of the young people and families we serve. That is a mouthful that, in essence, means that all CIS organizations have committed to do what we’ve established works best for the students.

See the CIS model for creating a Community of Support!

On Friday, we spent a full day with BoardSource, learning and considering ways to improve and better utilize our boards of directors. Both day’s sessions were most informative, with the interaction and sharing among the other affiliates being, to me, the most valuable time spent.

National Board President, Elaine Wynn, hosted us all for high tea at the Marriot in Manhattan, where we shared the hard lessons learned in and from difficult economic times. Affiliates were asked to put forth specific lessons, practices, changes and insights from our efforts to continue to serve our students in the midst of the nation’s economic downturn. We were asked to contribute not just the challenges we faced, but to contemplate and share what opportunities came from the struggle.

This was an utterly uplifting exchange, as CIS leaders,  in sharing their own hard lessons, successes and victories, offered impressive examples of innovation and creativity. By the end of the conversation, it became very clear why CIS is so successful. The CIS network is not only going strong nationally, but we have been able to harness the current constrictive economic environment, to better position ourselves as the most cost-effective drop-out prevention model in the market. Now more than ever many school districts know that in economically challenging times, they can’t afford NOT to have CIS on their campuses. Elaine Wynn said she was humbled by the  high tea discussion. She came to it very concerned about the morale of the affiliates, and walked away with the realization that CIS is so vital and our leadership so committed, that you “couldn’t kill CIS with a stick!”

As part of the evening’s festivities, we had the pleasure of meeting the new national CIS spokesperson, Tyrese Gibson, actor, singer, songwriter, rapper and former model. He is most commonly known simply as Tyrese. He spoke passionately and compellingly about his commitment to CIS and why the CIS mission is so important to him. He said that he was an at-risk kid growing up in South Central Los Angeles, and that he was saved by a music teacher who saw something in him and guided, mentored and cared enough to give him the support he needed to succeed. CIS’s mission to provide caring adults on school campuses, Tyrese knows, keeps kids in school and changes young lives.

CIS Houston Executive Director, Cynthia Clay-Briggs and Tyrese, Official CIS Spokesman

Rasheeda Phillips, successful, young attorney and mother, shared the incredible story of how, when she was 14, pregnant, and truly without direction, a Philadelphia CIS’s program rescued her and put her on track. She said that she knew everyone around her viewed her as just another predictable statistic, and she even began to view herself that way, too. She knew that she was caught in a cycle– her grandmother, mother and aunt were all teen mothers. But CIS told her otherwise and helped her break that cycle. She went on to graduate from high school. She finished college in three years, all the while raising her daughter. And then she went to law school. She now works for the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and has already begun to give back to her community in meaningful ways.

Inspirational Rasheeda Phillips, CIS Philadelphia Alumna and Me!

Read more about Rasheeda’s story here!

She reminded us that the CIS mission is spot-on, and that what we do works. And so with new tools and new connections among our different national, state and city affiliates, we return home to the work of changing lives — keeping students in school and on the right track.

Here’s how you can join us to make  a difference in the life of a student:

Donate

Volunteer

Become a Partner



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by | September 26, 2011

Stay in School Gala Big Board Auction is Live

The annual Communities In Schools ‘Stay in School Gala’ is 10/20 at the Hilton Houston Post Oak.

The Big Board auction items have gone live in our first ever online auction — 4 items featured right now –  more to be added!  Bid early, bid often — and make a difference to children in the greater Houston area!

 

 

 

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by | September 23, 2011

Successful Breakfast Event on September 21

CIS had a very successful Breakfast event on Sept. 21 where the goal was to raise funding to allow expansion into Spring Branch Middle School. There was a great crowd, more than 150 people, and all but one of the SBISD Board members were present. The only missing one, I was told, was an attorney who had a case in court that morning. There also were 2 former SBISD Board members present. This is outstanding support. In addition, there was a good mix of parents, business people and several representatives from churches in the area.

The funds raised are still a bit short of what is required to have one staff person at SBMS, but several leads are still out and we feel confident that the funding will be achieved. The day after the Breakfast, Bryan Williams, the principal at SBMS, sent a note asking for additional donation cards because several teachers at the school had indicated that they wanted to support the effort. This was completely unexpected and shows how supportive the school is in having the CIS program.

During Duncan Klussman’s talk at the Breakfast, he said that there are essentially 3 categories of schools in SBISD. The first group is the Title 1 schools. These schools have more disadvantaged children, less supportive parents but also receive added funding because of being Title 1. These are the schools CIS has been in, and CIS is supported by Title 1 funding. The second group is the schools in relatively affluent neighborhoods which generally have very strong PTA groups that generally are able to raise additional funds to support various things in the schools. The third group is all the other schools, the schools which are somewhat in between. These schools have a high percentage of children from low income families, although not enough to qualify as a Title 1 school. These schools may have active PTA groups but not as strong as those in group 2. So, Duncan points out that these schools may be at some disadvantage and that it may be good to have CIS in these schools, as well. This is, in fact, the exact situation for Spring Branch Middle School. It sits right in the middle of this third group, with 30% reduced or free lunch children. There can hardly be any question that the concept is right. Now, we will need to determine how to accomplish this.

Over the last several months, CIS has been highly focused on getting the budget to balance. During the 1990s and into the early 2000s, CIS had excellent growth and even built up a sizable financial reserve. But during most of the last several years, a series of issues has conspired to limit growth, limit fund raising, and about half of the reserve was used. The most critical issue recently was reduced funding from Texas, even though everyone feels fortunate that CIS still receives funding at all. So, it was essential to get this situation corrected, and it appears that this has been done. Last year finished at essentially break-even, and the current budget year is in a similar range. These issues are not completely behind CIS, but they appear to be controlled.

As CIS moves forward, it is essential that it again begins to find ways to grow. The expansion into Spring Branch Middle School represents a new direction where funding was raised in a different manner. And other such routes will need to be found.

Bob Gower

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by | September 19, 2011

Can Communities In Schools Help Provide A Sustainable Public Education System

Our country has gone in many directions relative to public education, and many people think that public education is failing and can not be redeemed.  There have been hundreds of alternatives proposed, and probably many of them will work to some extent.  But the issue for our country is that we must have a solution which is sustainable for the long haul.

Many people think that private schools provide an alternative, and they do for well-to-do America but not for the rest.  And that will be true no matter how many voucher programs or similar ideas are implemented.  Sending children to private schools and providing vouchers to get children out of poor performing schools and into better schools are fine ideas, but, as a country, we need a sustainable overall program.  Private schools generally cost more, and, if, as a society, we are unwilling to fund the current public school system, it is unlikely we will be willing to fund a more expensive one.

Charter schools indicate that they provide an alternative.  Most of them have had limited success, but there are some very successful ones.  KIPP, for example, does a great job.  But the cost is generally higher than the funding provided to most public schools.  So, the odds of making this a sustainable alternative are limited.  Charter schools have received great publicity, but they still number only about 5000 and serve about 1 million students across the country.  They can be good, but they are not a viable long-term solution for the country.

I can not be certain that Communities In Schools presents a sustainable alternative, but I do have a lot of data that will support the idea.  Nationally, CIS is in 3200 schools in 26 states and the District of Columbia and serves more than 1.4 million students.  This, of course, is not at the same intensity with which a good charter school works.  But, when CIS partners with existing schools in addition to bringing partnerships with hundreds of agencies that are already in existence that address specific needs which hinder a student’s learning and attitude, the overall result can be very intense and very successful.  This combination can be a very viable alternative–using the existing public school system in partnership with Communities In Schools which then brings in hundreds of additional services through partnerships.

The Houston CIS model is exactly that. CIS Houston works with more than 300 partner groups to bring an amazing supply of services to bear on the child’s issues.  That is in addition to the skill the CIS staff brings directly–right in the school.  CIS Houston served more than 37,000 students last year at about $250 per student.  That, of course, represents some cost increase per student versus public school budgets alone, but it definitely is a low increase.

The education issue and the very high drop-out rate must surely be one of the most important problems facing our country.  It is hard to imagine solving the employment issue and creating sustained economic growth if so many of our students drop out.  Many reports indicate the drop-out rate to be in the 30% range, but, even if it is less than this, the number still is far too high.

We need to use all practical programs which show positive results, but, more than anything, we need to implement a sustainable public education system.

Bob Gower

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by | September 16, 2011

Video overview of Communities In Schools Houston – what we do and how

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by | September 15, 2011

Communities in Schools looks to expand services throughout SBISD

From today’s Memorial Examiner – an update on Communities In Schools expansion throughout Spring Branch ISD and an upcoming ‘learn more’ breakfast to be held 9/21 at The Racquet Club on Memorial drive — 8:30am – 9:30am – please RSVP – all welcome – e: cgarcialee@cis-houston.org

 

By RUSTY GRAHAM
The Examiner | 0 comments

When Bryan Williams was asked, shortly after taking over as principal at Spring Branch Middle School in June, if he’d be interested in using Communities in Schools, he didn’t hesitate.

“I said ‘absolutely’,” said Williams. “I came here from Spring Oaks (middle school) and I’ve seen what (CIS) can do.”

 So he began a series of meetings with his campus improvement team over the summer and learned that parents and mentors were “very supportive.”

“One parent said that CIS being (at Spring Branch Middle) would strengthen the entire community,” Williams said.

Already in 30 schools in Spring Branch ISD — all the Title 1 schools, defined as those with at least 40 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches — CIS wants to raise awareness in the district’s more affluent areas, said Bob Gower, president emeritus of CIS of Houston and a lifetime member of the board of directors.

That’s every Spring Branch ISD school north of I-10, except Valley Oaks Elementary, already using CIS.

Spring Branch Middle School was chosen as a springboard for CIS expansion because it “sits at the intersection between the most affluent neighborhoods of Memorial and some of the lowest income areas” of Spring Branch ISD, Gower said in an e-mail inviting the community to an informational breakfast on Sept. 21.

Many Spring Branch Middle students come from elementary schools where they’re accustomed to CIS services, Title 1 elementary schools north of I-10, and will go back to a Title 1 high school.

But CIS services are for all students, not just those from poverty, said Emilio Herrera, a CIS representative already in place at Spring Branch Middle.

“We’re eager to let people know that CIS services are for everyone,” said Herrera. “Our students here also come from private schools, from home schooling and more affluent public schools, with their own sets of issues.”

Middle school is an especially critical time for students, said Linda Buchman, Spring Branch ISD community services officer.

“It’s a very vulnerable time for (middle school students)”, said Buchman. “Even kids of affluence need someone to talk to.”

Herrera said that he already has success stories from Spring Branch Middle. For instance, he was able to connect a former home-schooled student with a support group of students in a similar situation.

Children “tend to believe that they’re the only one” going through a situation, he said. “And sometimes, parents are more worried than kids.”

Focused on dropout prevention and improving graduation rates, CIS serves 9,700 students in Spring Branch, at an average cost per student of $250, and utilizes trained social workers and also works with more than 350 partners in the total Houston area, partners who bring critical services to children and parents, Bob Gower said.

That’s especially important in the context of funding cuts in public education, said Allison Gower, Bob Gower’s daughter and herself a CIS of Houston board member.

Spring Branch ISD eliminated roughly 350 positions this year, including many counselors, because of reduced funding from the state of Texas.

While CIS bears most of the cost of its service, the district contributes a significant portion. So far, enough money has been raised to guarantee a CIS specialist at Spring Branch Middle for a semester. CIS would like to raise enough to fund two full-time positions for a school year.

“Any child or family, regardless of income, can benefit from CIS,” said Allison Gower. “Collectively, we all benefit. Schools are being asked to do more with less. Here’s a way we can help support our schools.”

Spring Branch Middle may be the springboard, but both Buchman and Allison Gower emphasized that next week’s breakfast is not just about Spring Branch Middle School.

“From a district perspective, (the breakfast) is not a Spring Branch Middle School fundraiser,” said Buchman. “It’s about awareness, and to raise money to expand CIS in Spring Branch.”

“Spring Branch Middle School is a gathering place, a way to target people who live around (the school),” said Gower. “The overall objective is to raise awareness for CIS and make it possible for CIS to expand.”

rgraham@hcnonline.com

 

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by | September 14, 2011

We’re hoping that CIS and other surroundings agencies are going to be able to help us

This article from Harvey Kronberg’s The Quorum Report sites Communities In Schools as a much needed support system in Houston area schools; specifically below is an excerpt of comments by Susan Kellner from Spring Branch ISD.

HOUSTON AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS LAY OUT THE IMPACT OF RECENT BUDGET CUTS

………Spring Branch ISD cut 350 positions, or about 7 percent of the district’s staff, Kellner said. Class-size ratios were bumped from 22-to-1 to 24-to-1 in the early grades. Secondary class-size ratios were cut as well. The district’s curriculum and instruction staff, which primarily supported math and language arts instruction, was cut from 35 to 7, which Kellner said impacted professional development.

One Voice Texas is a loose coalition of Houston-area social service agencies. Kellner said Spring Branch chose to cut counselors on elementary school campuses, so that each counselor now serves two campuses.

“We’re trying to protect the few resources that we have, but we’re going to have to ask many of you to help us pick up the slack,” Kellner said. “Communities in Schools already is on our campuses, and we’re hoping that CIS and other surroundings agencies are going to be able to help us.”

Spring Branch, which received no pre-kindergarten grant from the state this year but continues to operate pre-k centers, also cut classroom assistants and increased student-teacher ratios on its early childhood campuses, Kellner said. That’s had a huge impact on the program, especially when it comes to revenue.

“It’s had a huge impact on our pre-k programs, and the parents have noticed,” Kellner said. “It’s really hurt our enrollment of tuition-based kids, which is a double-edged sword, to be losing those kids. We continue to have certified teachers in those classrooms, and we still do have half-day aides, but it’s increased the cost of that program.”

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