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Saying better principals are the key to boosting public education, an advocacy group hopes to raise $2.3 million to help Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recruit and train school leaders.
Kathy Ridge, executive director of Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, knows she'll be making her pitch with the economy tanking and community needs skyrocketing. But she hopes corporations and foundations will respond to “the leverage of the leader.”
“They understand when you invest in one new principal, that principal can impact on 2,000 students a year,” said Ridge, who was recently hired as the education group's executive director.
“It's like I told a group last week: You can't wait for the markets to change to invest in your public schools,” she added.
The group's focus on educational leadership also includes a Saturday training session for potential school board candidates and an additional $900,000 fund-raising goal to help parents be stronger advocates for their kids.
Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, which goes by “MeckEd,” was created in 2006 as a merger of the Charlotte Chamber's education efforts, the nonprofit Charlotte Advocates for Education and a business-funded task force that studied CMS reform. After a rocky start – the first executive director didn't stay long, and the 22-member board proved cumbersome – the group reorganized this spring. Ridge, who brings a combination of business and education leadership, was hired; she's a former executive with Wachovia, Teach for America and Charlotte's Community School of the Arts.
The fundraising campaign, which totals $3.2 million, represents MeckEd's first major effort. MeckEd will not ask individuals for donations. Instead, it will follow a model created in Chicago, with a nonprofit acting as a “venture philanthropy fund for public education.” MeckEd will channel money from foundations and corporations and will monitor results.
Ridge says she hopes to have pledges lined up by the end of 2008. By 2010-11, the goal is to have 60 to 75 new principals and assistant principals in place (CMS has roughly 170 schools, with more scheduled to open in coming years).
MeckEd worked with Superintendent Peter Gorman to choose efforts where private money could make the biggest difference, Ridge said. The biggest chunk, $1.9 million, will go toward bringing in the New Leaders for New Schools program. Based in New York, that organization trains nontraditional leaders, including people with a combination of teaching, business and nonprofit experience, to become principals in urban areas.
The plan also calls for $250,000 to go toward Leaders for Tomorrow, a partnership between CMS and Winthrop University to train teachers, counselors and other frontline educators as future principals. And $175,000 is tagged for training to help current administrators improve.
CMS's Parent University, slated to get $900,000, was launched this fall, pulling together classes offered by various community groups to guide parents in raising healthy, safe and successful kids. Other donors provided $300,000 for the startup; MeckEd's money would make sure it can continue.
On Saturday, MeckEd will offer prospective school board candidates a free session on board duties, issues and campaign financing.
All six district seats are up for election in 2009, but residents of Districts 2 and 3 could get a chance to apply for vacant seats this year. District 3 representative George Dunlap has been named to take the county commission seat left open by the death of Valerie Woodard. District 2 representative Vilma Leake is the Democratic candidate to represent that district as a county commissioner; strong Democratic registration in that district makes her the favorite in Tuesday's election.
Eighteen people have signed up so far.
