Creshonda Smith

RUNNING HEAD: ORGANIZATION KNOWING YOUR ORGANIZATION CRESHONDA CURRY SWK 7531/ RESOURCE ACQUISITION PROFESSOR OLATE THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 15 JANUARY 2013 The middle school that I am currently placed at is KIPP Journey Academy (KJA), located at 1406 Myrtle Ave, Columbus, OH 43211. This is a charter school that is situated in the urban community of Linden-McKinley. KIPP Journey Academy is part of the Knowledge is Power Program, which currently has 125 schools across the U.S. serving more than 32,000 students, grades K-12. KIPP is a free, public, open enrollment school that seeks to offer an opportunity at a great education to students who are historically underserved in Columbus, OH (kippcentralohio.org, 2012). The mission of KIPP is to find your passion, I.N.S.P.I.R.E., and to own your journey. The school’s values are: Imagine, Navigate, Seek, Persevere, Integrity, Responsibility and Empathy. KIPP Journey Academy is a student-focused community where all students develop the intellectual, academic, and social skills needed to understand and take action on issues they encounter in everyday life. In a rigorous, safe, and personalized learning environment, a culture of responsibility and service is fostered, empowering and equipping all learners to become more active and engaged citizens. KJA’s strategic plan to reach their goals is through a core set of operating principles which include: high expectations for the students, despite circumstances; this first principle revolves around a “no excuses” model of thinking. For example, the school has a system of “paychecks” set up in which they carry around an IPAD in their classrooms observing those students who have good behavior and those students who do not. Students who are demonstrating responsibility and integrity are able to receive “money” and spend it at the school’s “store” which has candies, toys, etc. This is a very good idea because it gives the students responsibility and makes them accountable for their actions. Choice and commitment is another principle, meaning the agreement to put in the time and effort to succeed. The next principle is more time, which speaks to the extended school days that KIPP embodies. The power to lead is a strongly emphasized principle, which is simply being a leader in your community. The last principle is focusing on results, which is when the school focuses on high school and then college preparation. One of the main goals of KJA is to get students “to and through college”. This involves a very militaristic environment in which students are expected to be on their best behavior at all times. Many times this is the structure that the students are lacking in their everyday lives. There is an extensive list of Board Members for KIPP Journey Academy who have diverse backgrounds. First, Judge Algenon L. Marbley, Chair, is involved with the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters Association, Children’s Hospital, Franklin County Children Services and Project Linden, Inc. Next, Abigail S. Wexner, Vice Chair, is the founder and chair of the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence and the Center for Child & Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, both in Columbus. Mrs. Wexner chairs the boards of KidsOhio.org and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus. Steve Bishop, Finance Chair, serves as a Tax Executive Director in the Columbus, Ohio office of Ernst & Young. He leads the Columbus office’s charitable efforts as chair of the Community Engagement Committee. Eddie Harrell, Jr., Secretary, is the President and CEO of the Columbus Urban League. Mr. Harrell is a board member of Youth for Positive Image, Columbus Public Schools Equity Task Force, Columbus Workforce Alliance, and the Greater Linden Development Corporation. James H. Gilmour is currently the retired Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary of The Dispatch Printing Company. Mr. Gilmour is a board member of Children’s Hospital, Ohio Dominican University, The Ohio State University Audit Committee and Experience Columbus. Honorary board member, Ralph A. Johnson, Ph.D., is appointed to the Educational Service Center of Franklin County Ohio where he is the Director of the Leadership Center, responsible for providing executive training for practicing school administrators. Also a board member, Barbara C. Trueman has been involved with the The Ohio State University Foundation Board, the National Council for Ohio State Women, and Children’s Hospital. Next, Stuart Burgdoerfer currently holds the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Limited Brands Inc. Stuart is also currently a member of the Progressive Corporation Board of Directors. Kevin Reeves is Managing Director, Energy Trading & Marketing for American Electric Power Energy Partners. Joe Chlapaty is the President & CEO of Advanced Drainage Systems. He has served with ADS since 1980. Besides serving with KIPP Journey Academy he is on the Board of Directors at the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, Marietta College, and the University of Dubuque. He also serves on the Board of Directors at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and most recently with Lutheran Social Services. Blake Thompson currently serves as Vice President for the Battelle/Ohio State University collaboration. In this role, he is responsible for helping to create and implement ideas to build more joint research and economic development ventures between Battelle and The Ohio State University. Next, John Kobacker is a member of the World President’s Organization and sits on several for-profit boards. Denise Glimcher currently works at Columbus School for Girls as a substitute teacher and tutors KIPP students in reading once a week. Mrs. Glimcher previously served on the Planned Parent of Central Ohio Board of Directors, The Columbus Jewish Community Center Board of Directors, and Columbus School for Girls Board of Directors. Katie Kaufman is also a board member whose accomplishments include having served as a Learning Disabilities tutor at Brown Elementary in the Hilliard City School District. She has volunteered at KIPP Journey Academy as a tutor for four years. Lastly, Dr. Amy McClure is the past president of the Children’s Literature Assembly, Children’s Literature Board of the International Reading Association, the Ohio International Reading Association, and the Ohio Association of Private Colleges of Teacher Education. She is President-Elect of the Ohio Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. To provide KIPP’s unique educational program, schools rely on support (donations) from community members such as Nationwide, Huntington Bank, AT&T, AEP, and Bob Evans. As a network of public charter schools, KIPP schools receive the majority of their funds from the state ($397,000) and federal governments ($55,000), and local funding ($874,000) (kippcentralohio.org, 2012). The priorities of the stakeholders are that the community is cleaned up and the students are given a chance that they would not otherwise have to attain a quality education and go to and through college. This enables the students to participate in activities that will provide an outlet and possibly equip them with coping skills for the future. To my knowledge, I have not seen the school hold any fundraisers thus far to raise money for any activities. I know that they may be planning to hold fundraisers in order to support extracurricular activities for the students, but that’s about it. The community stakeholders come in to visit periodically to make sure their dollars are going to good use, but no fundraisers are held. In regards to diversification, the school uses their specialized model of student academic achievement to elicit support from various stakeholders. As previously mentioned, the longer school days, vast extracurricular activities through the Boys and Girls Club that comes to the school from 4-7 each day besides Friday, and the methods of teaching and communicating are what draw others to KIPP. In addition to this, the school has shown steady growth in each grade level and consistently meets the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The highest subjects for growth are reading and math. Teachers extend themselves through allowing the students to call their personal cell phone numbers from the end of the school day until 9pm each night. They also call students’ homes consistently not only to report behavioral issues, but also to offer praise and collaborate with parents to ensure student success academically, socially and emotionally. Overall, the amount of time, effort and dedication that KIPP exudes definitely sets them a part from traditional school systems. WORKS CITED "KIPP: Central Ohio ." KIPP: Central Ohio . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. .