Life and Work with Tracey Beal, Jill Hicks, Nicki Piemonte, Kit Danley and Jennifer Johnson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracey Beal, Jill Hicks, Nicki Piemonte, Kit Danley and Jennifer Johnson.

Tracey, Jill, Nicki, Kit, and Jennifer, please share your story with us.
Eleven years ago, when I was a Young Life College Director in partnership with Arizona State University, I took college students on service trips to countries all around the world. We often served in public schools which gave us an incredible opportunity to meet a need in any neighborhood where we served.

While in Peru, I suddenly realized that we were flying over a huge amount of need in our own city of Phoenix, Arizona. Why didn’t we bring businesses, churches, non-profits, and university students together to serve public schools in our own city? Working in partnership with the downtown campus of ASU, we began to engage with local schools in Phoenix and momentum really began to grow when we realized that there were many organizations in our city who wanted to make a difference in schools as well.

Our model of school engagement took a huge step forward when we were introduced to Dr. Susie Cook, who was then the Superintendent of the Washington Elementary District, which is the largest elementary district in Arizona. Dr. Cook believed in what we were doing and provided top personnel in her district to help us refine our model and increase our impact. This is when I met Jill Hicks who was working with Dr. Cook at the district level to grow their community engagement. Jill and I joined forces to make sure the school was always the driver as we invited businesses, churches, non-profits and community organizations to work together to serve.

At Palo Verde Middle School, we worked with the principal and her team to develop a clear strategic plan and then invited these partners to the table to choose how they wanted to be engaged. As we worked together, we saw this high poverty, failing school turn around academically, decrease negative discipline behavior by 62%, engage parents, decrease the number of teachers fleeing the school and transform the reputation of the school in the neighborhood. Dr. Cook was thrilled and invited us to multiply the model throughout all 32 schools of her district.

Today, we have a developed a model called the CAFÉ (Community and Family Engagement Event) where the school principal invites all of the different stakeholders to join them for a round table discussion where they build a relationship, share their school’s strategic plan and create a collaborative action plan for their school’s success. By leveraging the strengths of the community around the school we create sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships that bring real change to a school and to the entire neighborhood.

Of the 58 school districts in Maricopa County serving 1 million children, School Connect has the privilege of working with 42 districts. (429 out of 1171 schools).

The US Department of Education honored the CAFE model as a best practice of faith communities serving local schools and we have also been recognized by the Arizona Department of Education and the 21st Century After School Learning Center Grant.

Love Our Schools Day
Three years ago, we began Love Our Schools Day as an effort to provide an on-ramp to relationship building between community groups and their local schools. We started with 14 churches who served 40 schools in 11 districts, grew the next year to have 10,000 volunteers serve 265 schools in 30 districts and last fall we were thrilled to see 18,000 volunteers served 387 schools in 37 districts.

Annual Summit
School Connect hosts a yearly Summit that brings diverse stake holder groups together with educators to grow in their vision of partnerships and understanding of best practices of collaboration. At our January 2018 Summit 42 districts connected with 800 community leaders to continue the process of strategic partnerships.

Recent Stories of collaboration:
This fall, Dutch Bros, Alice Cooper’s Teen Rock Center, School Connect and the Paradise Valley School District are joining up to celebrate kids and art. Art Directors from the Teen Rock Center are teaming up with art teachers from the school district to help students design the next Dutch Bros sticker at the end of October. During the competition, well-known community judges will narrow the winners down and then the Dutch Bros social media audience will decide the final winner! The student whose sticker is chosen by Dutch Bros will receive free drinks for the year.

Pure Heart Church is joining faith communities around Phoenix to receive training in Trauma Informed Care so that they can better meet the needs of students and families who are in crisis. They have also trained chaplains to serve schools in the Washington Elementary District. As crisis happens chaplains work along side the district Crisis Response Team to meet the needs of students, teachers, and families.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Launching School Connect has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. We started with a hunch that what we had seen work elsewhere could be modified to bring incredible impact here in Phoenix. We had to win trust with the administration at the highest levels of education and every other sector. We had to believe that collaboration was worth the effort, and press into the vision of something new. We have been taking risks, trusting our instincts, learning from others and growing in confidence that this vision is truly powerful. We have also had the privilege of bringing interns on our journey every step of the way. They have grown us as we have helped them grow. It’s been an incredible privilege!

Please tell us about School Connect.
School Connect envisions, networks, trains and coaches schools to connect in meaningful partnerships with their community. We believe that by empowering the entire community to work together we can see our next generation thrive, our schools transform and our neighborhoods flourish.

There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
I find mentors everywhere I turn because I am in constant learning mode. As I try new things there are always people who are ahead of me who can help me think differently and grow skill sets I do not yet have. I have a long-term personal mentor as well. I love Mary Malouf because she watches over me as a person, believes in me and is a great mirror to reflect what she sees.

Contact Info:

• Address: 14240 No. 43rd Ave., Glendale, AZ 85306
• Website: schoolconnectaz.org
• Phone: 602-670-6513
• Email: tracey@schoolconnectaz.org
• Facebook: @schoolconnectaz.org

Image Credit:
Tracey Beal

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