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TWO HEADED DOG AT THE MAD HATTER IN COVINGTON / SCOTT BESELER | HIDE PHOTO GIVE US YOUR EMAIL AND WE WILL GIVE YOU OUR This week's blogger, P.G. Sittenfeld, subscribes to the adage that 'it takes a village' to educate a child. In this case, Sittenfeld, the Director of Community Engagement for The Community Learning Center Institute, says Cincinnati has much to be proud of as a community when it comes to improving our public education system. In this week's blogs he challenges each of us to recognize how our own time and talents will continue to make an impact on every child's education. I spend my days thinking about - and doing my best to act on - ways in which our schools can be used to help revitalize neighborhoods, and, in turn, neighborhoods can be tapped to help strengthen schools. Naturally, I was thrilled with the recent announcement that Cincinnati Public Schools advanced to the "Effective" category on the Ohio Report Card - the highest mark for the district since the state began its current ranking system a decade ago. This is good news for all of us, whether we have children enrolled in CPS or not. We know - both intuitively and from research - that a stronger school system translates into greater economic development, lower crime rates, higher property values, and a heightened level of civic participation. A weak school system, on the other hand, flips all of those trends in the wrong direction. Personally, I know that every time young married friends of mine tell me that they're moving outside the City so they can send their kids to quality public schools, I sense a lost opportunity. The important thing now is to build on our current momentum. The biggest kudos for the recent progress belongs to the principals, teachers, and students who worked so hard all school year to boost academic achievement. But there's another group deserving of acknowledgement and appreciation. That would be you: the community. Without the vast network of community partners - from funders to program providers to individual volunteers – the recent gains could never have been realized. In recent years, Cincinnati has created a nationally recognized model for schools as community learning centers dedicated to serving as extended- hour neighborhood hubs open to both students and non-student residents in the surrounding community. These community learning centers provide additional academic support, health resources, after-school activities, recreational opportunities, and venues for neighborhood events. One of those community learning centers is Oyler School in Lower Price Hill, which in the last several years has risen from "Academic Emergency" http://www.soapboxmedia.com/blogs/posts/0907pgsittenfeldblog1.aspx "Our success simply would not have been possible without our partners," Craig Hockenberry, Oyler's principal who was honored earlier this year with the Cincinnatus Association's James N. Jacobs Outstanding Administrator award, told me. "We've developed our school as the pillar of the community in Lower Price Hill, and both the school and the neighborhood are better off for it. We've learned from our partners how to effectively align our resources and demand accountability. The way forward is for every school to be a true community learning center." Whether it's the United Way and Greater Cincinnati Foundation helping pay for the critical position of school resource coordinators, the Freestore Foodbank providing meals through its "Kids Café," or individual volunteers like Rita Hudepohl who has been tutoring and mentoring 3rd graders at Oyler school for the last 15 years, the clear takeaway is that only the whole community working together can help lift up the young people who are the Every one of us has a talent and a small amount of time each week to share it. In my case, I've been told my singing voice and my yoga poses are nothing anyone should be taught to emulate, so I'm sticking with what I know: This fall at CPS' Quebec Heights Elementary School, I'll be piloting a citizen journalism workshop that I'm calling "Neighborhood News Crews." For an hour and a half each week, students, parents, and community members will spend a portion of each session reading and discussing current newspaper articles and then spend the rest of the time brainstorming, researching, and writing stories about their own neighborhoods. The goal is to practice literacy skills while also boosting civic awareness so that publications like this one have readers and writers a generation from now. I encourage others to share their passions with students eager to discover a passion of their own. In his keynote address at the UC Economics Center award luncheon last spring, former Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper said continued progress "will take the community - and by 'community,' I mean all of us - believing and acting on the conviction that the development of the children in our For the more than 33,000 public school students in our city, their future is clearly a brighter one when all of us walk by their side. After last week's good news, the community should give itself a well- deserved pat on the back. And then it's time to refocus our efforts and to do TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2010 10:26 AM BY ADRIJANA KOWATSCH Strong schools are key to more young professionals raising their families in the city. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2010 12:30 PM BY ERIC GREENBERG I'm glad that you are back in Cincinnati working to improve our public schools. One note I would add is that the best thing that parents can do to improve our public schools is to stay in Cincinnati, send their kids to CPS and stay involved! You are on the nose with your comment that every young couple http://www.soapboxmedia.com/blogs/posts/0907pgsittenfeldblog1.aspx that exits for the 'burbs is an "opportunity lost." On a side-note, perhaps with Lakota's big cuts there will be migration in the opposite direction? TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2010 12:31 PM BY ERIC GREENBERG I'm glad that you are back in Cincinnati working to improve our public schools. One note I would add is that the best thing that parents can do to improve our public schools is to stay in Cincinnati, send their kids to CPS and stay involved! You are on the nose with your comment that every young couple that exits for the 'burbs is an "opportunity lost." On a side-note, perhaps with Lakota's big cuts there will be migration in the opposite direction? TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2010 12:50 PM BY MICHAEL GREEN The greatest human rights campaign of our generation needs lots of supermen and superwomen to contribute in small and big ways to the burgeoning education reform movement. Thank you for working to make schools community centers--I hope to hear more about this innovation. 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