CPP Community Partnership Ideas

We started partnering with Commerce City Early Childhood Council in 2006 and witnessed the great benefits that the CPP program brought to our Center and continues to bring to our community.

The quality of services provided to the children continues to improve.

Parent involvement in their children’s education has increased.

Teachers continue to use the online tools to track children’s early childhood educational development.

Teachers are taking additional college courses to improve their credentials and quality of service to the children.

In the last period, we increased the number of children we serve to 40 and plan to get approval from the Child Care Department to reorganize the classrooms and increased capacity in the preparation for additional funded slots.

The above benefits motivate the center to continue working with the program to serve more children.

Alfredo Esguerra, Council Chairperson, Commerce City Early Childhood Council,
Maria E. Esguerra, Director, Little Giants Learning Center, Adams 14

CPP partnerships with community sites allow for families needs to be met and for the level of high-quality early childhood education to increase in the community at large. This section provides ideas for partnerships and collaboration, mentoring and quality development, and RFPs, slot allocations, and funding. For more information on statutory requirements around community partnerships, you may access the pages on partnerships and Requests for Proposals in our CPP Online Handbook.

Partnerships and Collaboration

Garfield RE-2 (Rifle)

We are proud to collaborate with Colorado Mountain College to provide 17 CPP spaces to students attending their Early Learning Center. This partnership is particularly rich, for while the children are enrolled in preschool, the parents take ESL or GED classes at our community college. We love the opportunities for both child and adult education.

CPP Contact: Deb Ghan, dghan@garfieldre2.k12.co.us

Yuma

Also housed in the District's preschool facility is Yuma County Head Start, a cooperative effort since the preschool was built in 1995. The Preschool and Head Start staff have worked together to strengthen and improve their programs. They share equipment and space, and other resources. The staff work together to share duties on the playground as well as planning special events such as field trips, parties and parent nights. The collaborative effort is also extended to BOCES.

CPP Contact: Tiffany Roundtree, roundtreet@yumaschools.org

Garfield 16

Head Start is in charge of providing the curriculum for the all day program. Many additional details have been worked out in order to meet both Head Start and CPP requirements.

To ensure good communication between the two programs, Head Start sends a representative to the CFL Advisory Board Meeting, the Head Start teacher attends CFL's weekly Preschool in service meetings, and the Head Start staff attends some of the relevant CFL all-staff meetings. Head Start and the CFL Preschool have also blended some of the parent events.

CPP Contact: Katie Walton, kwalton@garcoschools.org

Adams 14 (Commerce City)

We continue to build our partnership with the Lion's Club through their KidSight Program. We had originally planned for Lion's Club volunteers to attend preschool screenings, yet found this did not work well in their schedule. Instead, the volunteers screened a total of 450 enrolled preschoolers and 525 kindergarteners. We also did a test run screening 80 first graders at one school. This comprehensive free vision screening provides seven different vision screens with a 95% accuracy rate. If a child did not "pass", they were connected to physicians that accept Medicaid to further evaluate the child's vision needs. Lions Club will also fund these visits, glasses or services if the child doesn't have Medicaid and can't afford the cost.

CPP Contact: Sue Okerson, sokerson@adams14.org

Harrison 2 (Colorado Springs)

Community Partnership for Child Development and School District 2 have committed to an early childhood partnership with a vision of ensuring that all children who need access to an excellent, early childhood program and whose parents are unable to pay for those services, will have that opportunity.
We are accomplishing this vision through a variety of models offered through Harrison’s adult and family education programs, programs for teen parents to support them in finishing high school, CPCD’s Early Head Start programs, and blended Head Start and CPP classrooms.

CPP Contact: Dan Snowberger, dsnowberger@hsd2.org

Mentoring and Quality Improvement

Aurora

A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which outlines the instructional and classroom environmental expectations necessary for collaboration with Aurora Public Schools has been signed by the community partners. Expectations regarding participation in professional development offered through the Early Childhood Education Department were included, as well. This agreement will be renewed prior to the start of the 2011/2012 school year to ensure that all APS students who participate in ECE programming will receive comparable preschool experiences regardless of their site location. The goal for the 2011/2012 school year will be to monitor these agreements and provide ongoing instructional support opportunities.

CPP Contact: Sheri Charles, sbcharles@aps.k12.co.us

Jefferson County

Extensive staff development participation is mandatory in our district as follows:

Mentor program established to assist new providers in classroom environments, curriculum development, and staff development with the intent to provide quality programs for children, families, and staff.
The mentor hired to improve classroom environments advised on staff education and implemented curriculum worked directly with the program director and staff.
CPP Contact: Sherri Fast, sfast@jeffco.k12.co.us

Colorado Springs D-11

Responsibilities of Community Contracts:

Ensure Head Start and community sites meet guidelines for special education and CPP
Provide full day services
Monitor all community contracts to ensure compliance and proper billing
Provide differentiated support for community sites with non-certified staff
Provide cohesive collaboration with local child care community
Ensure a learning environment not a child care environment
Facilitate and ensure positive and productive working relationship between community
provider and D11
Conduct Child Find and IEP reviews for community sites
Provide required trainings to community sites
Provide monitoring to ensure that special needs children are making progress on IEP goals within community settings
Assist in preventing and resolving compliance issues
Contribute to improved quality of care throughout community centers

CPP Contact: Kathy Howell, howelkl@d11.org

RFPs, Slot Allocations, and Funding (from 2008 and 2009 Expansion Applications)

Adams 12 Five Star Schools (Northglenn)

We sent our last RFP in January 2008. Out of 40 sent, five Early Childhood Programs responded. Out of five respondents, only two met CPP criteria. Even though only two programs qualified, it was worth the time it took to complete the task because it provided more opportunities to network with local day care sites.

CPP Contact: Celeste Scott, celeste.scott@adams12.org

Durango School District 9-R

Centers are not provided a “quota” that they are allowed. Slots are allocated based on the risk factors of the children who have applied in any given year, so these allocations change each year based on who applied and the kind of risk factors that the child brings.

CPP Contact: Laurie Kloepfer, lkloepfer@durango.k12.co.us

Denver Public Schools

Targeted sites for expansion CPP slots awarded to Denver Public Schools will include:

· Denver community agencies not currently participating in CPP and community child care sites in neighborhoods where demographics indicate a gap between available child care slots and family need.

· Current CPP community sites where wait lists indicate a need for additional slots and where appropriate classroom space exists

CPP Contact: John Crawford, john_crawford@dpsk12.org

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