Working Together for Educational Equity
Partnership Update - June 2021
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Dear Partners,
Hope springs eternal ...
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“The opportunity stands before us to build a world that is more than just better, it can be a world that is more humane. It can be one that is more secure and one that reimagines all the systems that have replicated negative societal outcomes in the past.” - Itoco Garcia, Superintendent of the Sausalito Marin City School District and MPP Leadership Team member (Marin Voice)
As the county begins a period of emergence, your leadership as partners will be essential to reimagine and transform our educational ecosystem, with Equity, Justice, Integrity, and Compassion at the forefront. Here are some signposts of what’s “springing up” across the county and within the Partnership to guide us along the way:
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PARTNERSHIP GOVERNANCE
Leadership Team, Youth & Family Council, & Board of Directors
The Partnership's Governance Bodies have met to review & discuss the Partnership’s upcoming Strategic Planning Process.
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The purpose of the Strategic Planning Process is to engage Partners & community members in co-developing a shared community vision for educational equity in Marin County. After 9 years of collaboration, the Partnership is poised to deepen and accelerate Partner’s collaborative work to transform educational systems and expand equity-based supports for BIPOC, low-income, and other marginalized communities, so that all students in Marin can reach their full potential. Over the next 12 months, a Strategic Planning committee will be working with Partners, community members, and an external consultant to develop the Partnership’s long-range plan for the next 3-5 years. Contact Cameron Hunter for more information
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EARLY CHILDHOOD & ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Kindergarten Readiness & Early Grade Literacy
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Public Preschool Becomes a Reality in West Marin - A collaboration of community organizations successfully worked with Shoreline Unified School District (SUSD) to develop a three-year plan to offer preschool for all children throughout the District. Partners from the West Marin Kindergarten Readiness Team, including Daphne Cummings, Lourdes Romo, Bob Raines, and Sarah Hobson, worked together for 18 months to present the plan to the School Board, which voted to approve the proposal at its meeting on April 15th. Click HERE to learn more and for links to the IJ and Pt. Reyes Light articles. For more information, please contact Maria Niggle.
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SRCS Continues to Invest in Early Grade Literacy - The San Rafael City School District plans to provide direct funding for the San Pedro cohort of the Leyendo Juntos collaborative program model. The program -- developed by partners in the Early Grade Literacy Team including Dominican University, Parent Services Project, Marin County Free Library, and ELM -- combines bi-lingual, virtual literacy pods with parent engagement & support. For more information, contact Juliet Schiller.
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COLLEGE & CAREER
Middle Grade Math through College Enrollment & Completion
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Deepening College & Career Team Alignment - The College & Career teams (4 year Plan, KEDO and Enrollment) continue to meet together to coordinate and amplify their collaborative actions. This past quarter they were also joined by the Completion team to help bridge the high school to college transition through the COM/10KD Summer Bridge program. Click HERE to learn more about this year’s SummerBridge program.
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TUHSD Institutionalized Success Networks at Tam High - TUHSD has fully embraced the cross-sector, partnership-based Success Network model as an embedded part of Tamalpais’s student support infrastructure. Elizabeth Cooper, who has facilitated the Tam Success Network for the past 3 years, will now transition her role into coaching and supporting the growth and evolution of the Success Network model at Tam, Redwood, Shoreline and (coming soon in 2021-21) San Rafael and Novato.
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PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVES
Cross-milestone & COVID-19 Related
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Marin Educators for Equity - Partners continue to build a shared data system to support the recruitment & retention of educators of color, and have identified several high-impact HR practice shifts to focus their county-wide, collaborative efforts in the near-term. Meanwhile, teams at NUSD and SRCS are working in partnership with College of Marin & the Marin County Office of Education to develop CTE Pathways for students of color to explore careers as educators while still in high school. Partners are also exploring options to establish Teacher Residency programs, and leaders at SRCS are in early conversations with an external firm to develop affordable housing options for teachers. Please contact Robin Pendoley for more information.
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Digital Divide - In partnership with the Marin County Free Library system, Abbie Ridenour, an Education Pioneers COVID Fellow, has been working to organize hotspot inventory data and optimize future device usage. She is also supporting the larger Digital Marin initiative by helping to develop a needs analysis and landscape assessment of Marin’s Digital Divide within Marin’s education sector. Contact Abbie Ridenour for more information.
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Click HERE to learn more about the May 21st Event on Bridging Marin’s Digital Divide.
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Click HERE to learn more about how you can help your students and families access the FCC Emergency Broadband Benefit subsidies for internet and computer funding subsidies.
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Expanded Learning: From Learning Hubs to Summer Promise+ - As schools began reopening to in-person learning, Hub operators shifted their focus toward the summer and began meeting to talk about how the lessons learned and relationships developed through the Learning Hub experience could transition into an integrated approach to summer programming. Partners participated in 5 Summer Promise+ county-wide collaborative meetings and worked together in various partnership teams to move forward on specific summer planning efforts. As summer approaches, Partners are shifting again into summer program implementation. The school-family-service provider relationships and infrastructure that started with Learning Hubs and evolved into new summer partnerships may yet again transform into new COVID recovery strategies for expanded learning opportunities in the 2021-22 school year. Contact Shelley Hamilton for more information.
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Click HERE to learn more about Learning Hubs
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Click HERE to learn more about Summer Promise+
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COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVES
Supporting Community Collaboratives & Adjacent Sector Efforts
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Launching a Community Collaborative in the Canal - At the request of partners, the Backbone Team has recently expanded efforts to support community collaboration by convening & facilitating the Canal Collaborative. Led by a steering committee composed of long-standing San Rafael leaders -- Balandra Fregoso, Maite Duran, Marina de Palma, Florencia Parada, Maika Llorens Gulati, and Lorenzo Cordova -- the Collaborative serves as a a cross-sector stakeholder convening that identifies community needs and assets, builds and amplifies innovative community efforts and supports results-based community-driven accountability. It is modelled after the successful West Marin Collaborative and will complement existing community-based efforts in the Canal Neighborhood through an inclusive, grass-roots space. For more information, please contact Marjorie Delgadillo.
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As always, we, the Backbone Team, are inspired by your resiliency and your continued dedication to our county’s students, educational equity, and building a joyful vibrant community as we spring forward into our unfolding post-pandemic reality.
In solidarity,
Marin Promise Partnership Backbone Team
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