Partners in Education: A win-win for the community

We are excited to update the community on our Partners in Education program. This coordination of schools with businesses and nonprofits produces a great sense of satisfaction and pride for all participants.

The Education Alliance of Washoe County, a nonprofit entity governed by 25 community, business and education leaders, has coordinated the Partners in Education program for our K-12 schools for 25 years. By the end of this school year, we will have engaged partners at each school. Our goal is to continue to recruit enthusiastic partners from our business, faith based, nonprofit and service organizations. At the same time, we are striving to develop higher yielding partnerships by developing a series of "Best Practices" roundtable discussions for principals and their new partners.

All this activity is aligned with the five-year Strategic Plan of the Washoe County School District. The Board of Trustees, management, principals, educators and support staff are focused on achieving specific goals. This progressive roadmap for improving the management and outcomes of the K-12 education system has numerous ambitious goals. The achievement of the goals is crucial to providing our economy and society with either college or highly skilled career ready graduates. The rebuilding of our economy is inextricably linked to an improved education system.

We recognize that the time of a principal and the partner is limited; our goal is to make the absolute best of these limited opportunities. A partner and principal meet to determine (a) what the principal has outlined in the school's improvement plan and how a partner might assist in the implementation, and (b) what the partner is able to contribute in human capital. Partners come in all shapes and sizes. For example, to support a school's literacy effort, a small real estate business may provide volunteers to read and help in a single classroom, a medium sized nonprofit may volunteer in several grades at a school and a large company may actually adopt the entire elementary school.

The Education Alliance staff encourages partners to be an active member at the school, be involved in school projects, sporting events and music and art activities. We strive to have the principal and their staff be engaged with the partner by including them in these same activities and helping the partner better understand the inner workings of a school. Through a dynamic relationship between a school and a group of partners, great collaborative assistance will result.

We want to stress that any business, nonprofit, faith or service organization can partner with a school. By learning of successful principal/partner relationships, existing partners can learn how to increase their yield on invested time. This synergy supports principals, meets corporate community engagement goals, boosts the morale of hardworking employees and company leaders, and invests in tomorrow's workforce - hence the win-win.

The Education Alliance is pleased to coordinate the Partners in Education program. The Education Alliance is a nonprofit governed by 25 community and business leaders, as well as the heads of K-16 education institutions. If you are interested contact our offices at 353-5533 or contact Partnership Coordinator Coleen DeLong at cdelong@washoeschools.net.

Denise Hedrick is executive director of The Education Alliance (www.ed-alliance.org). Contact her at dhedrick@washoeschools.net or 353-5533. Jim Pfrommer, a certified public accountant in Reno, is president of the board of Education Alliance. Contact him through www.pfmccpa.com.