Bruce Karhoff                                                                                                                                   

EDL 702: Ethics in School Leadership

22 October  2012

A partnership plan for your new school

As schools are open systems and public schools are indeed dependent on their environments for their very survival, an effective leader should engage with the external environment to mine resources for the school while also acting as a buffer for the teachers and students against its negative impacts.  School leaders must work with other leaders and teachers within the school to identify needs that could be met by outside organizations, identify potential external organizations whose mission aligns with our school’s needs, reach out and establish partnerships, and then nurture those relationships to ensure long-term sustainability.

As a leader of the Bronx Preparatory School, I would reach out local universities, especially those with whom I already have a relationship, for personnel support.  Hiring new faculty that are supportive of the school’s vision and mission is key to its success, so I would keep an open channel with the professors at Lehman College to identify both new teachers and emerging school leaders who would be a good fit at the Bronx Preparatory School.  I would also use my contacts at the Peace Corps Fellows program at Teachers College to do the same.  In a similar manner, I would have my school leaders each identify contacts at their universities to develop a list of “first contacts” for recommending potential personnel.  These same university contacts will also be useful in identifying providers of professional development for my staff.  While at the Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy, the pedagogical staff worked with members of the engineering faculty of Manhattan College for a week each August to design curriculum that infused engineering concepts in all disciplines.  I would seek out similar university partnerships for specialized curriculum development for the Bronx Preparatory School. 

In addition to identifying community resources to support the staff, the Bronx Preparatory School will identify community-based organizations that provide social services, enrichment opportunities, and job-/college-readiness training to partner with.  I would model these partnerships on the relationship my current school, Bronx Lab School, has with FEGS.  FEGS provides funding and personnel support.  They provide our school with a full time social worker and 1-3 social work interns who provide counseling for our students.  FEGS also staffs and administers the WIA (Workforce Investment Act) program, an after-school job training program that guarantees summer employments opportunities for our students who complete the program.  FEGS also provides funding and identifies instructors for our after-school enrichment classes.  Through FEGS, our students have had opportunities to learn circus skills from members of the Red Apple Circus, to learn bike riding and bike safety, to learn outdoor camping, leadership, and survival skills, and to participate in a jazz ensemble that performs several times a year around the city.  This partnership with FEGS takes continuous nurturing.  As FEGS funding and project focus evolves, so does the partnership with our school.  By maintaining open communication and semi-annual evaluation of the partnership that looks specifically at CBO resources and mission as well as the school’s needs, both organizations can benefit in a symbiotic manner.

Finally, the Bronx Preparatory School will maintain a community resource guide for students, families, and teachers.  This guide, maintained by the school leadership and the parent coordinator, will allow the school to be a conduit for families and students to tap into other community resources not provided by the school.  Recognizing that many (if not most) CBOs exist to provide services to members of their communities, the school can help these CBOs carry out their mission by identifying members of the school community that need the supports offered by these organizations.  CBOs that provide housing assistance, help with immigration-status, immigrant services, or legal aid, just to name a few, would be listed in this directory.