World Café Ideas
May 26, 2011
Blue Zone - Transportation, Housing, Mobility:
I learned tonight:
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Students who travel have lower grades.
Farmers Market accepts Food Stamps.
Adequate Housing in the Community.
Homeless with teens.
Transportation needs due to mobility –
(families continually moving) potential of
allowing children to remain in school
regardless of where they move. (NO
Transfer Policy)
173 kids in CPS are homeless
Barriers for schools – helping get to school
programs.
Some parents accuse educators who try to
help.
Jr. Highs have transportation longer that go
to high schools for sports, also tutoring
hours – Highlight now available!!
Fear of litigation can be an obstacle for Goal
II of Transport, House, and Mobility.
Transportation is becoming more difficult –
gas prices high, less gas to get extra
activities.
Mobility of students – impatience of keeping
kids in home schools.
Secret shoppers
Loved the goal of PTA’s making a goal of
achievement
We need more information on what the
affordable housing learning communities &
affordable housing preferences are??
Importance of home-school communicators
Need for coordination of home-school
communicators
World Café Ideas: Blue Zone - Transportation, Housing, Mobility
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Help out transportation through volunteers
who know the families (Also
solution/strategy)
Adult conflict causes families to lose
housing and children are forced to change
schools
Losing Sec. 8 Housing
Housing Authority Voucher List is always
closed….when is it open?
Vaccination forms – how do we assist ELL
parents with explaining vaccinations
Are our schools accessible to individuals in
wheelchairs, etc.,
As a school, how do we accommodate, How
all kids can be involved
Can public transportation be involved in
special route
I never knew about Home-School
Communicator until tonight
Reducing Mobility
After school tutoring HAS transportation
“Mobility plan” at CPS = Good for some
schools in CLUSTER
- Special Ed
- ELL
I want to know more about:
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Improved transportation including disabled
Affordable transportation
Awareness of transportation
resources...WHO?!
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Using home school communicators to help
families with alternative transportation methods
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Home school communicator – who has
them—what schools need them? Why don’t
they all have them? (Assuming budgetary?)
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How many Home school communicators
What are barriers, liability concerns
If use volunteers, can state volunteer law
help?
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Could the City tweak times to better
accommodate our times for certain events?
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Liability issues?
Safety?
How many kids use public transportation?
Does CPS provide transportation to
extracurricular activities? Band? Sports?
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Importance of keeping kids in home schools
Feedback from Secret Shoppers: Are we
pursuing multi-cultural secret shoppers – what is
feedback and training?
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How many K-12 grade students are using
public transportation?
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Home-school communicators need to be
reinstated
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How can we get more Home-school
Communicators in our schools?
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Best practices to do to get parents more
involved?
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Efforts to help with student mobility
Transportation
Efforts to improve public transportation
Medical transportation
PedNet
Possible community center with mentor
resources, after school academics & social
opportunities in neighborhood area schools
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Harlem Children’s Zone
Leadership Institute
Promising Neighborhoods
How to support schools/families without
Home School Communicators
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Do parents/students who have accessible
issues feel welcomed into our schools?
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We need to bridge the parent gap- the lack
of minorities/diversity in involved parents
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World Café Ideas: Blue Zone - Transportation, Housing, Mobility
A community center/agency
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There ought to be an assessment process
when there is a mobility issue – to create a plan
for the child →include parents in this process
→Do what’s best for student →Possibly keep
student at school and provide transportation
Neighborhood Based Education
Transportation for students who participate
in after school activities >Drunk college
students can get FREE taxi rides and buses
anytime of night. WE CAN DO IT!
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Home-school communicators should not be
hired in place of African American Men in the
classroom
Affordable Housing Learning Communities
Welcome committees for PTA
How to get a more diverse population
involved in PTA
Keep child in same school
What are the best practices in this area?
How does Harlem Children’s Zone deal with
mobility?
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How to make possible to transport poor kids
to many after or before school activities
A solution/strategy I can offer is:
 Need transportation for extracurricular
activities “Activity Bus”
 Improved public transportation
 RESOURCE COLLABORATION
 Work with PedNet
 Send fliers home with students with info
about nutrition & farmers market
 Get more business’ involved with CPS
 Places / shelters for teens that are homeless
 Promote homeless shelters to youth in
school so that they have a place to turn to
 Can PTA(or other group) take over some of
these resources?
 What about free ads for non-profits on
Columbia buses?
 Communication mentors for families
 Welcoming committee to make the family
feel more connected – teachers, parents, staff
 Keep children in the same school for a year
 Partners In Education supporting HSC
program
 More active volunteer programming
 Allow educators a home school
communicator to transport parents to school
 Parents or community car pools
 Let PIE provide transportation
 Church run school
 Partnering with the City bus
 Buddy traveler for safety on buses
 Have parent teacher conferences at alternate
places
 More forms of transportation
 ELL teachers lead PD on culture
traditions/language
 Our table mostly liked the recommendations
from Transportation groups especially related to
home school communicators
World Café Ideas: Blue Zone - Transportation, Housing, Mobility
 Move H-S Communicators
 The H-S needs a place to go get help for
families – i.e., a resource to help a family with
electricity bills
 Didn’t have time to discuss solutions – ton
bridge the parent gap – addressing the lack of
minorities/diversity of involved parents
 Involve PedNet in transportation issues
 Voluntary carpool thru PTA
 Do not offer school bus for students who
live .5 mile from school – must walk!
 Welcoming School Environments
 Use ESL people to do the multicultural plan,
not home school communicators
 Our group liked – 3, 4, 5, 6 bullet points on
Welcoming School Environment
 Recommendation for Mobility &
transportation
 Liked Home School Communicators helping
coordinate transportation
 We want Home School Communicators
back….Para professionals are doing it.
 Could builders give a duplex to a district
employee (one-side) and them operate a
community center agency/ out of the other side
 Harlem Children’s Zone – Leadership
Institute
 Neighborhood based education
 PedNet- The healthy initiative public
transportation on + walking
 Updating routes
 The more we use it the more routes we will
have
 Provide an “Activity Bus” for all kids
 Training program for Home-School
Communicators
 Revamp H-S Communicator position →do
not use as disciplinarians or lunch room
supervisors
 H-S Communicators need to bridge between
Parents and Teachers
 School District needs vans with same
protections as buses have and some protections
as drives have
 Blanket indemnity insurance for any
employee to provide transportation?
 Partnerships with local ministerial alliance
 BIST program stresses all children fed
before learning takes place – regardless if they
are late to school
 Meals, Buddy Packs – do in a possible way
that doesn’t single out
 West Blvd – when teachers do home visits –
could nutritional information be shared?
 Home many students K-12 depend on public
transportation to schools, data? Is this an issue?
 We liked the committee recommendations to
partners with city bus/ look at times
 PTA Welcoming Committee is good
 Back to idea of Churches - PTA intro or
Back to School if every PTA were challenged to
have at least 1 person of color
 Maybe we should offer more exposure to
ward a larger spectrum of careers
 Mobility – School Bus Universal Stops –
instead of buses having designated schools
maybe a stop picks up kids and takes them to 3
different schools as a way to solve changing
schools when they have to move
World Café Ideas: Blue Zone - Transportation, Housing, Mobility