Title: 3.  AGREEMENT WITH COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS AND HEALTH TECH, INCORPORATED

Requested Action:

1.  THAT THE DUVAL COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD APPROVE AN AGREEMENT WITH COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS AND HEALTH TECH, INCORPORATED TO IMPLEMENT THE TRANSITION BEGINS DAY ONE PROJECT AT MATTIE V. RUTHERFORD ALTERNATIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND GRAND PARK EDUCATION CENTER FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2007-2008 UNDER THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS GRANT PROGRAM IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $397,623.

2.  THAT THE DUVAL COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD AUTHORIZE THE BOARD CHAIRPERSON AND THE SUPERINTENDENT TO AFFIX THEIR SIGNATURES TO THE AGREEMENT UPON APPROVAL AS TO FORM. 

Summary Explanation and Background:

Conference Report on House Bill 5001, Specific Appropriation 106, authorizes the Commissioner of Education to award grant funds for discretionary projects focused on educational partnerships serving disruptive and low-performing students under the Alternative Schools Public/Private Partnership Grant Program.  Duval County Public Schools has been awarded funding under this grant program to collaborate with Communities in Schools and Health Tech, Incorporated to provide professional development and student support services to the faculties and students of the district alternative schools. 

The Transition Begins Day One Project will build upon the consistent academic progress and implementation of standards based instruction which has been ongoing within the district alternative schools for the past several years.  Additionally, an integrated learning system consisting of Compass Odyssey, Fast ForWord, READ 180, and NWEA assessments has been implemented this school year in the alternative schools.  Grant funding will help to support focused professional development for the faculties and staffs of the alternative schools with the goal of developing an effective professional learning community.  The professional development activities included in the project will focus on two areas.  First, to help continue and expand the ongoing implementation of standards based instruction and to assist teachers in more effectively utilizing the integrated learning system put into place this school year.  Secondly, to assist teachers in more effectively and comprehensively addressing the interpersonal, behavioral, and social needs of their specific population of students within the alternative school setting.

For the past several years, the district and school-based staffs have placed increasing emphasis on assisting students in experiencing an effective transition back to the home school environment.  Funding from this grant program will provide for a partnership with Communities in Schools to expand and accelerate that process of improving student transition back to the home school.  In this project, Communities in Schools will employ seven full-time case managers to provide support services to students as they undergo the transition process.  The case managers will provide intensive services for up to 450 students for a minimum of a 45-day period such as student, parent, and home visits and contact, meetings with school staff, and linkage to behavioral and social services as needed by the students.  Following the 45 days of intensive services, support will continue for these students for up to one year as needed by individual students. 

External evaluation services will be provided by Health Tech, Incorporated.  Formative, summative, and impact data will be gathered, analyzed, and interpreted closely to measure the impact of project activites for students in the short-term as they transition back to their home schools and in the long-term as they progess towards high school graduation.  Both academic performance indicators and measures of interpersonal and behavioral effectiveness will be analyzed.   

New Century Commission Recommendation/OPPAGA Recommendation/Council of Great City Schools Recommendation:
N/A

Attachments (list):
AlternativeSchoolsPlanningGrant20062007BudgetDetail11507.doc

Financial Impact (Including HR/headcount/Source of Funds):
The grant award for this project for school year 2007-2008 is $554,273.  Of this total, $368,823 will be transferred to Communities in Schools and $28,800 to Health Tech, Incorporated for project services per the agreement.  The total amount to be transferred would be $397,623.  This is a three-year grant award with the amount of funding each year to be determined by the Florida Legislature.  There are no new full-time DCPS positions included in this grant award or project. Anticipated date of award December 1, 2007.

For Additional Information, contact:

Dr. Kris Larsen, Supervisor           858-6080

Alternative Education/Safety Nets

Jonathan Brice, Chief Officer        390-2476

Special Services