On Sunday, May 19, 2013, we wrapped up our inaugural End of Grade (EOG) Camp. Over 170 students representing 64 schools in the Triangle participated in our five-week camp.

And now, we are happy to announce that through a generous grant from Duke Energy, our SMART Academy can now offer year-long programs and services to students throughout Wake County.  SMART stands for “students maximizing academic resources through technology.” The SMART Academy offers the following programs:

• SMART Summer and SMART Track-Out Camps;
• SMART Beginning of Grade (BOG) and SMART
• SMART End of Grade (EOG) Camps;
• SMART Weekend School; and,
• SMART Evening School (on-line tutorial support).

Our curriculum emphasizes:

1. Interactive Instruction (assessments and on-line data-driven instruction);
2. Differentiated Instruction (individualized and small groups); and,
3. Project-based learning (experiential learning).

(Click here to view a video about our interactive instruction powered by our partner Triumph Learning).

Our reliance on data to drive instruction allows us to create a learning environment where students “don’t just work harder, but SMARTER!”

The foundation of our SMART strategy is the SMART Weekend School, a 28 week program designed to strengthen students in grades 3-8 in math and language arts. Beginning September 13, 2013, SMART Weekend will meet on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for three hours each session for intensive instruction. Parents will choose one day per weekend for their student(s).

Thanks to Duke Energy’s investment, the first 100 parents who register for SMART Weekend School by Friday, May 31, 2013 will receive SMART Pricing (click here to download schedule and pricing sheet). It is our goal to provide ALL parents in Wake County with the tools that their students need at an affordable price.

We are parents, too.

We understand that any program that delivers results and offers a multitude of services under one roof – while helping parents save money – is a valuable resource.

We would like to become the resource that parents in Wake County value.

Here’s our lesson plan:

1. During SMART Summer or SMART Track-Out Camps (beginning in June) we will assess students’ math and reading levels to ensure that they are prepared for their upcoming grade level. Our educators will develop an individualized summer lesson plan for student based on grade level benchmarks and SMART growth goals.

2. During SMART BOG Camp in August we will let parents know how far their student has progressed in math and reading, while working with officials from Wake County Public School System to introduce them to Common Core Standards and grade level expectations.

3. In SMART Weekend School we will use 28 weeks of individualized, small group and interactive instruction to build student skills. We will use project-based experiments while exposing students to career paths and options. Each week, students will have three free hours of on-line or in-person tutoring to work on homework or skill development.

4. As SMART Weekend School ends, we will prepare students to excel on their EOG tests during our SMART EOG Camp.

We want to make this yearlong program available to all parents in Wake County.

Please consider this:

The average cost per hour of a tutor in the Triangle: $45
The average cost per hour of instruction in the SMART Weekend School: $15
The average cost per 3 hours every week of SMART Weekend School: $45

PLUS students (registered in the SMART Weekend School) receive:

• FREE EOG Camp
• FREE BOG Camp
• FREE 3 hours of weekly on-line instruction; and,
• Deep discounts on Summer Camp and Track-Out Camp!  

Registration in the SMART Weekend School gives parents access to our full menu of programs. Parents may visit www.ciswake.org to complete their registration or click below to register now.

If you’d like more information please click here to download a FAQ sheet or e-mail us with any questions or comments. Please don’t forget to share the news with parents.

We need you and your friends to join forces to send a student to the SMART Academy.

Through a grant from Duke Energy, the SMART Academy can now offer year-long programs and services to students throughout Wake County.  SMART stands for “students maximizing academic resources through technology.” The SMART Academy offers the following programs:

• SMART Summer and SMART Track-Out Camps;
• SMART Beginning of Grade (BOG) and SMART
• SMART End of Grade (EOG) Camps;
• SMART Weekend School; and,
• SMART Evening School (on-line tutorial support).

Our curriculum emphasizes:

1. Interactive Instruction (assessments and on-line data-driven instruction);
2. Differentiated Instruction (individualized and small groups); and,
3. Project-based learning (experiential learning).

(Click here to view a video about our interactive instruction powered by our partner Triumph Learning).

Our reliance on data to drive instruction allows us to create a learning environment where students “don’t just work harder, but SMARTER!”

The foundation of our SMART strategy is the SMART Weekend School, a 28 week program designed to strengthen students in grades 3-8 in math and language arts. Beginning September 13, 2013, SMART Weekend will meet on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for three hours each session for intensive instruction. Parents will choose one day per weekend for their student(s).

Thanks to Duke Energy’s investment, the first 100 parents who register for SMART Weekend School by Friday, May 31, 2013 will receive SMART Pricing (click here to download pricing sheet). It is our goal to provide ALL parents in Wake County with the tools that their students need at an affordable price.

We are parents, too.

We understand that any program that delivers results and offers a multitude of services under one roof – while helping parents save money – is a valuable resource.

We would like to become the resource that parents in Wake County value.

Here’s our lesson plan:

1. During SMART Summer or SMART Track-Out Camps we will assess students’ math and reading levels to ensure that they are prepared for their upcoming grade level. Our educators will develop an individualized summer lesson plan for student based on grade level benchmarks and SMART growth goals.
2. During SMART BOG Camp in August we will let parents know how far their student has progressed in math and reading, while working with officials from Wake County Public School System who will introduce them to Common Core Standards and grade level expectations.
3. In SMART Weekend School we will use 28 weeks of individualized, small group and interactive instruction to build student skills. We will use project-based experiments while exposing students to career paths and options. Each week, students will have three free hours of on-line or in-person tutoring to work on homework or skill development.
4. As SMART Weekend School ends, we will prepare students to excel on their EOG tests during our SMART EOG Camp.

We want to make this yearlong program available to all parents in Wake County. We just concluded our first 5-week SMART EOG Camp for 170 students from 64 schools in the Triangle. In addition to these students, we have over 100 parents who need a scholarship in order to send their student(s) to the SMART Weekend School for 28 weeks.

Please consider this:

The average cost per hour of a tutor in the Triangle: $45
The average cost per hour of instruction in the SMART Weekend School: $15
The average cost per 3 hours every week of SMART Weekend School: $45
The average monthly cost of attending the SMART Weekend School: $180
The annual cost of attending the SMART Weekend School: $1,250

PLUS students (registered in the SMART Weekend School) receive:

• FREE EOG Camp
• FREE BOG Camp
• FREE 3 hours of weekly on-line instruction; and,
• Deep discounts on Summer Camp and Track-Out Camp!

Registration in the SMART Weekend School gives parents access to our full menu of programs. You can “give back to the future” by asking your friends and colleagues to join you funding a scholarship to send a student to the

SMART Weekend School today! By Friday, June 28, we’d like you and your friends to help us provide scholarships to cover tuition ($100 per month per student).
 

“We were fortunate to have so many outstanding and deserving nonprofits apply this year. The final choice was a difficult one,” said Matthew Strickland, executive director of Band Together. “To date, our growth has been in collaborating with one nonprofit, but we believe that a larger partnership with more resources in the Triangle, working on one common purpose, will create even more impact in the community. Communities in Schools of Durham and Wake counties truly demonstrated how a combined partnership with Band Together in 2014 will be able to make a profound and lasting impact on the lives of so many here in the Triangle.”

Proceeds raised at the 2014 event will go to hiring a minimum of six graduation coaches and mentors who will directly serve more than 600 students while indirectly serving 6,000 more students in the Triangle. Analysis by EMSI, one of the nation’s leading economic modeling firms, has shown that Community in Schools’ model is providing an $11.60 benefit/cost ration to every $1 invested.

“We also believe that through this collaboration with two nonprofits, we can help reduce overlapping services in our community and these partnerships can help us extend our reach beyond just Wake County,” said Strickland. “We want to be a leader in the nonprofit collaboration space in our area.”

“This partnership will help Communities in Schools of Wake County and Communities in Schools of Durham County continue to push our young people to success, achieve higher graduation rates and build an empowered and able young workforce,” said Travis Mitchell, executive director of Communities in Schools of Wake County. “We are truly looking forward to linking arms with Band Together to have an impact in the community in 2014.”

With the success of its 2012 concert, Band Together has donated more than $2 million to local nonprofits since its inception in 2001. The 2012 Band Together event helped raise $566,000 for Urban Ministries of Wake County. In 2013, Band Together hopes to raise more than $850,000 for the Band Together partnership with Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities.

Past nonprofit partners have included Urban Ministries of Wake County, Alliance Medical Ministry, StepUP Ministry, The Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood, SAFEChild, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle and more.

For more information about Band Together, visit www.bandtogethernc.org, become a fan onFacebook, join their LinkedIn group or follow @bandtogethernc on Twitter. To learn more about our 2014 nonprofit partners, visit www.ciswake.org or www.cisdurham.org.

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About Band Together NC
Band Together NC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization composed of business and community leaders and volunteers from across the Triangle. Since its inception in 2001, the organization has donated $2,034,000 to philanthropic organizations through one mission: using live music as a platform for social change. Band Together’s annual concert event is organized and led entirely by a team of more than 500 volunteers.

About Communities in Schools
Communities in Schools is a nationwide network of passionate professionals working in public schools to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. The network works within the public school system, determining student needs and establishing relationships with local businesses, social service agencies, health care providers, and parent and volunteer organizations to provide needed resources. For more information, visit www.communitiesinschools.org.

Media Contact:
Lauren Brown
Account Executive
S&A Cherokee
(919) 674-6020 x128
lbrown@sacherokee.com

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Communities In Schools of Wake County (CIS Wake), the area’s largest dropout prevention agency that works in partnership with the Wake County Public School System to help students in need, has announced a $45,000 grant from PNC to establish pre-Kindergarten initiatives at CIS Wake’s PNC Learning Center at Heritage Park and the SAS Learning Center at Kentwood. The grant was announced Friday morning at CIS Wake’s Gifted Hands Breakfast, which was sponsored by PNC.

“PNC is dedicated to supporting early childhood education in order to help prepare children to succeed in school and in life,” said Paula Fryland, PNC regional president of Eastern Carolinas. “Our support of CIS Wake’s new pre-Kindergarten initiative provides additional opportunities for young children to improve their prospects to graduate high school and build a solid foundation for the future of Wake County.”

The grant serves as a continuance of PNC’s and CIS Wake’s partnership, and an example of PNC’s commitment to support the area’s early childhood education initiatives.

“We are so grateful for the support we continue to receive from PNC,” said Travis Mitchell, president of CIS Wake. “This grant is a great example of PNC’s commitment to helping CIS Wake support early childhood education initiatives and, in turn, help to secure a brighter future for our area’s children. In addition, we were excited to have had Dr. Carson speak at our Gifted Hands Breakfast this morning.”

Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery for the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., served as the guest speaker at the event, which raised funds and awareness for CIS Wake and the services it provides for the area’s students.  Dr. Carson, who made history in 1987 when he led a team of doctors in the successful separation of 7-month-old Siamese twins joined at the back of the head, has been a longtime supporter of CIS Wake, having spoken at the grand opening ceremony for the Learning Center at Heritage Park 20 years ago.

In addition, he is president and co-founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments. Operating in 45 states and the District of Columbia the fund has awarded more than $4.5 million to more than 4500 scholars. The program also establishes Carson Reading Rooms to encourage young students and their families to discover the pleasure to be found in books and to recognize the true power of learning.

NEW MEDIA CONTENT:
Communities In Schools of Wake County’s Facebook page:
http://on.fb.me/PNSPqo

Communities In Schools of Wake County’s Twitter page:
http://bit.ly/PsTSYA

Communities In Schools of Wake County’s YouTube channel:
http://bit.ly/NwKWXP

ABOUT COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF WAKE COUNTY:
Communities In Schools of Wake County (CIS Wake) is the area’s largest dropout prevention agency. The organization has worked in partnership with the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) for more than 20 years to help area students stay in school and achieve in life. CIS Wake is one of 38 local affiliates across the state of North Carolina serving students in 44 counties, and is a part of a national network of 181 local affiliates serving more than 1.3 million students in 25 states. Additionally, CIS Wake supports more than 5,000 students in six Wake County public school sites and five community-based learning centers. For more information about CIS Wake, visit http://ciswake.org.

About the PNC Foundation
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC), actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture. Through Grow Up Great, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a $350 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.

Media Contact:
Roberta Hadley
rhadley@ciswake.org
919-834-5663, ext 3-4
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1nmhS)

Watch the Video

(Raleigh, NC, Monday, August 20, 

On Wednesday, August 29 teachers can bring a valid school ID to all Belk stores and receive a special 20% storewide discount.

“We would like to salute the tireless educators in our community by offering an exclusive day of savings for our valued teachers, school administrators and school employees,” says Karen Greager, RVP Raleigh Market, Belk. “We are grateful for this opportunity to recognize their invaluable efforts and contributions to our community.”

“My mother and stepfather, both now retired, spent over 60 combined years as educators in Wake County,” says Travis E. Mitchell, President, Communities In Schools of Wake County. “I watched them pour so much into their students each and every year and never asked for anything in return. I am sure that this gesture by Belk will be appreciated by the families of teachers who watch them give so much of themselves to others.”

About Communities In Schools of Wake County (CIS Wake)…

For more than 20 years CIS Wake has partnered with the Wake County Public School System to help students stay in school and achieve in life. It is one of 38 local affiliates across the state of North Carolina serving students in 44 counties and a part of a national network of 181 local affiliates serving more than 1.3 million students in 25 states. (www.ciswake.org)

About Belk, Inc…

Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc. is the nation’s largest privately owned mainline department store company with 303 Belk stores located in 16 Southern states. (www.belk.com)

Contact: Roberta Hadley, 919-834-5663, 3-4
E-mail: rhadley@ciswake.org

Contact Patrick Carroll at pcarroll@ciswake.org or 919-834-5663 x 3-6.

“We have enjoyed a long relationship with CIS Wake as the sponsor of the RBC Bank Learning Center whose staff has done a great job of offering after-school tutorial and homework assistance to the students of the Heritage Park community,” said Bill Bunn, RBC Bank’s Regional President of Retail Banking and a CIS Wake Board member. “When the need was expressed for additional school supplies for students across the county, we viewed support of the ‘Build-a-Backpack’ campaign as an extension of our commitment to the work being done in Heritage Park and a way to be of further service to the families of Wake County.”

At the beginning of this school year, CIS Wake collected 1,000 backpacks full of essential school supplies during the initial phase of its “Build-a-Backpack” campaign sponsored by Walmart. .

“Thanks to the generosity of our corporate and community partners, we more than doubled the amount of donated school supplies that we normally distribute,” said Travis Mitchell, President of CIS Wake.

“But times are tough, and based on what we are hearing from our parents, students and other community leaders, there is an escalating need for more supplies. So, we decided to extend our campaign by reaching out to area businesses and asking for help. RBC Bank enthusiastically agreed to support our continuing efforts.”

We are proud supporters of the African American Cultural Festival because we can’t imagine life without music that provides the soundtrack to our lives; art that inspires; or dance that moves us.

The arts express how we feel, think and live. They stir the creativity and give birth to the ingenuity inside of us.

So along with partners Walmart and Radio One, Communities In Schools of Wake County is a proud friend of the African American Cultural Festival.

Support for the ARTS today CREATES a better tomorrow!

Travis Mitchell has come full circle, and he’s glad to be back home.

But he’s on a mission to remove barriers. Specifically, those that stand in the way of young people and their full potential.

After a successful career in television and marketing in Atlanta, Mitchell, 41, was hired last fall as the new director of Communities in Schools of Wake County, a nonprofit that seeks to prevent dropouts through tutoring programs and mentoring in local elementary, middle and high schools.

The organization, which served 475 students last school year, relies on funding from corporations, such as IBM, SAS and others, and Wake County to provide services to kids who need them.

But for Mitchell, it’s more than a job. It’s personal.

“I’m a product of Wake County,” he said last week during a visit to the News & Observer. “I benefited from the Wake County schools tremendously.”

Mitchell’s school career sent him all over the city – as he points out, he knows busing, and he knows neighborhood schools – and culminated when he graduated with honors from Enloe High School in 1988.

Whether bused to school or whether he lived 10 minutes away, he said he found one constant: Strong adult mentors.

“The thing Wake County schools afforded me was quality teachers,” he said. “I always had a caring adult as an advocate in my life.”

That’s precisely the idea he’s advancing through Communities in Schools.

One way it’s doing this is through “graduation coaches,” adults who work with students at select schools to monitor their progress and keep them moving toward advancement. The coaches work at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Three coaches are funded through the Wake County school district. A few more were added in January and funded through Communities in Schools. The coaches earn about $35,000 a year, Mitchell said.

The work appears to be paying off.

For example, at Millbrook High School this past school year, 53 students worked with the graduation coaches and all had a 90 percent or better attendance rate, with 28 of them exceeding 95 percent.

“We’re trying to build a safety net” that catches students when they fall, or when their circumstances fail them, Mitchell said.

That includes not only the growing number of graduation coaches at local schools, but also trying to grow the number of after-school learning centers currently in five of Raleigh’s public housing communities. Communities in Schools touts the success in those centers during the 2009-2010 school year:

222 students served

72 percent met their goal of missing fewer than eight days of school

94 percent met a goal of no suspensions

67 percent met or exceeded the goal of a C or better in language arts; 57 percent in math and 71 percent in social studies

Expanding partnerships with the business community is another of Mitchell’s immediate goals.

One new partnership with Walmart calls for learning stations inside the retail giant’s stores where students could get help from tutors while their parents shop. After 10 minutes at the learning station, tutors would be able to give parents an assessment of their child’s skills, areas of weakness and information on resources that can help the student progress.

One group that could benefit from Communities in Schools is student athletes, Mitchell said. He speaks from experience.

While at Enloe, Mitchell played on the basketball team and had dreams of making it big.

But, as he readily admits, “My GPA was higher than my points per game.”

That told him he needed a back-up plan, but not everything thinks that way.

“I know what happens when they lose that dream,” he said of student athletes, noting that such disappointment often causes students to lose focus of what’s important.

But a strong mentor can keep these students on track, he said.

Along those lines, Mitchell said Communities in Schools would love more volunteers – retired professionals, business leaders and regular folks with a willingness to give of their time and shape young minds.

It had about 180 this past school year and Mitchell hopes to get 250 for next year. Somewhere closer to 500 would be even better, he said. The more volunteers, the more students get a chance to succeed.

That’s why the community’s help is so important, Mitchell said. His Wake County ties give him added urgency to see this program continue to grow and make a difference in the lives of students.

“You cannot take for granted what happens when an adult cares,” he said.

If you’re interested in volunteering, or learning more about Communities in Schools of Wake County, call Mitchell at 919-834-5663, ext. 3-1, or email tmitchell@ciswake.org.

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Story by JASON FOSTER
jason.foster@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4635