Spotlight On Progressive Business Publications: 12 years of Parntership with Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School

Posted by on March 22, 2013

By Liz Shriver and Regina Black

This February, I had the pleasure of interviewing the innovative team of individuals at Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School (CW) who have established strong, sustainable community partnerships. I spoke with Out of School Time (Before and After –School) Program Director, Ro Fuscellaro, Assistant Director Maryann Smith, Principal Karen Thomas and Director of Philanthropy at Progressive Business Publications Regina Black Lennox. It speaks to the strength of CW’s partnerships and the priorities of the school that in order to understand their partnership I needed to meet with the entire team. Even though it was report card conference day, we spoke for over an hour about the long history at Cook-Wissahickon and what has helped to make these initiatives sustainable.

To find out more about PBP and their philanthropic endeavors at CW and with other organizations check out their website:

http://www.progressivebusinesspublicationscsr.com/

Report card conferences are one of the most exciting times to see families in action. The office was teeming with parents and students checking on the timing of their appointments with teachers and chatting with one another about their children’s classes.

CW’s Principal, Karen Thomas, noted to me that she feels extremely lucky to be able to provide so much for her students through community partnerships. The strongest and longest partnership at Cook—16 years– is with Progressive Business Publications (PBP).   PBP functions as an “anchor partnership”.  As the long-standing anchor partnership, PBP has set up and funds a before and after-school program and developed and funds a mentoring program for Cook Wissahickon students.  The partnership has thrived and expanded despite overwhelming changes within the CW school population and within the Philadelphia School District. In addition to the numerous PBP programs funded by the company, the school has some additional external partnerships including a power hour of after-school tutoring through Philadelphia University

What is immediately evident about PBP’s partnership with CW is the positive energy, trust and respect between After-School program Director Ro Fuscellaro, Assistant Director Maryann Smith and PBP Director of Philanthropy Regina Black Lennox.  Sustaining a successful before and after-school program for over 16 years is no small feat in this era of extreme budget cuts. Employing the same Director and Assistant Director who know all of the families and children in the school, not only those in their program, is almost unheard of.  But at CW, this works.

When the after-school program was initiated by PBP, program Director Ro Fuscellaro conducted research and site visits to other after-school programs, to better understand what makes a good after-school program and what components could make the program at CW successful for their students.  The Founder and CEO of PBP, Ed Satell, joined her in this research, to make sure the new program would be the best of its kind for meeting student and family needs.

They conducted site visits at several local programs at Temple University, Foundations and Beacon centers. Ro took extensive notes on what activities each program conducted, how they were funded and what they did for snacks.  They then reviewed the best practices, incorporated these, and the CW Program was begun.

CW’s after-school program highlights what many neighborhood schools need to do to survive. Today, to augment their focus on healthy afterschool snacks, Ro accepts grants from the local ShopRite through Philabundance. To encourage sportsmanship and activity, PBP sends in the Legacy Tennis Program.  The before-school program was expanded at the request of the CW Administration and Faculty, concerned that students who were dropped off early wouldn’t have to wait outside due to budget cuts in before school personnel. Each component to this program has been created with financial sustainability and the wellbeing of students specifically at Cook-Wissahickon in mind.

Regarding their PBP partnership, Principal Karen Thomas stated:

There are too many business out there that could be doing this but don’t have the support. They need someone like Regina [as a Director of Philanthropy] at a business. You need someone who can be a decision maker at that level.  You need the vision and commitment of the Funder.  In that, Ed Satell and his company PBP are unique.

Prior to my site visit, I asked Regina Black Lennox a few questions about the beginnings of PBP’s partnership with Cook-Wissahickon to better understand the background of PBP’s ongoing support.

Q: How did your partnership begin initially?

A: Ed Satell & the company he founded, Progressive Business Publications, wanted to make a sustainable difference. Seventeen years ago, Ed heard General Colin Powell speak in Philadelphia.  The General was proposing his America’s Promise Alliance — the concept of businesses adopting schools to provide many of the needed initiatives Districts, particularly city districts, could not afford.

Ed was inspired by the concept, and reached out to then Philadelphia Superintendent David Hornbeck, who offered Ed his choice of four schools.  Ed refused the selection, saying he didn’t want to create one winner and three losers.  He asked the Superintendent to identify one school, highly at-risk, for his company to adopt. Cook-Wissahickon, which at that time supported students from the East Falls projects, was the school.

CW in 1997 was, like so many struggling city schools, plagued by high teacher turnover, sinking school morale, an over-stretched budget and a deteriorating physical facility. The result was predictable: sadly, the students ranked in the bottom percentages on recognized success indicators.  There was little support for the Faculty, for families in need, and there was no safe, structured after-school program to fill the time slot when students are most vulnerable.  All this began to change when the partnership was formed.

Q: What factors allowed this partnership to be sustainable for such a long time?

A: I think a number of key factors came together for this partnership:

Commitment. Never forgetting the students are the highest priority—their success, safety and happiness.  PBP recognized a change was desperately needed, and the CW Administration, Staff and community wanted to make the programs work.

Addressing real needs, not imposing programs or giving unlimited dollars.  First need—a safe, well-structured after-school program.  PBP a set up the program, worked with the district to get everything in place, and funded this.  Today, the company continues to pay more than 90% of the program’s costs (the Directors and Staff are on PBP’s payroll), to provide snacks, supplies, etc.  Parents/caregivers are asked to pay a small stipend, and to sign a compact that they will review their child’s homework and adhere to the program’s structure.  Our After-school program was expanded six years ago when CW’s Staff expressed concern about children unsupervised in the schoolyard early in the am.  Today we have both the Before and After-school programs.

Visibility. I’m frequently on site. Our Mentors go to CW to see their Mentees on a regular basis.  Mentees come to our corporate headquarters every month.  We do career days, class trips, the CW graduation – the yearbook always contains a special letter to PBP – Faculty programs, theatre programs, choir initiatives, home and school programs … in short, the school community can always see we care. Administration, Staff, families and students all know they have our continuing support.

Mentors.  Working on-to-one with students (during the school day, which means during work hours) over several years makes a big difference.  Mentees grow to understand they have a positive role model and concerned adult in their corner.  This is not tutoring—it’s true mentoring for life success.

Mutual appreciation.  Our Principal, Staff, and our Before and After-school program staff all appreciate what we do, and appreciate the role we play.  They reach out only when there’s an issue we can address.  Likewise, we don’t interfere with the academics or district strictures.  We listen to what our school needs, and find ways to offer efficient, effective support.

Flexibility, creativity and dedication.  A city school is a city school.  We are a business.  Different priorities, schedules and needs etc. can pose challenges but we have established one constant focus – doing the best for the students, and creating accomplished, successful, happy students.  That takes flexibility, creativity and dedication.

Being proactive.  When CW added grades, we added programs.  When they tell us about issues, we react.  We’ve hosted “value of education” days, “Importance of staying in school days”—you name it.  We provide Thanksgiving dinners to families in need, but do it quietly. We’re in this for praise or recognition—we’re all involved because our students are important! We are proactive in finding solutions to problems at our school.  And we’ve just begun to tell our 16-year success story outside our community, to help encourage and inspire other organizations.

Q: What are the benefits for students, for Progressive Business Publications?

A: Wow—great question.  Let me see if I can give you a quick summation of some benefits,

For the Students: Our goal is that students are provided with a safer, happier, more successful school and education, leading to a better future.  One example – last year, district cuts caused our lunchroom monitors to be let go.  That’s a crisis for the Principal, for teachers asked to become monitors during their lunch period, and for students.  It can even become a safety issue.  We wound up funding the salary for a lunchroom supervisor.

Other examples:  Field trips were shrinking due to budget cuts.  We set up and fund an outstanding annual trip for the Grade 8 students.  They enjoy private tours of PA’s own Wharton Esherick museum (we created and provided prep materials too) followed by lunch at Margaret Kuo’s Mandarin (even a lesson in using chopsticks!).   This year CW’s high-energy choir director asked for sponsorship so the choir could participate in the city’s Thanksgiving Parade—and we said yes!  We have a lot of similar examples from our 16 years with CW.

When our Faculty has a need, we try to assist as well.  One example – asking the Council for Relationships to provide speakers and counselors to address issues like bullying.  Each year we send a touring outreach assembly program from the Walnut Street Theatre, again to provide a lesson or address an issue in an entertaining way.

For Progressive Business Publications: One of our core corporate values is concern for the greater good—giving back.  We believe it’s our social responsibility and it’s a privilege.  We’re not a huge company, but I’m a full-time Director of Philanthropy.  Our adoption of CW allows my colleagues to participate personally in an impactful corporate citizenship initiative. As Mentors, as the support team, as editors helping fill-out high school applications, as adult speakers for programs, in many other ways, my colleagues are involved and strive to make a difference.  Our company is quietly proud of our long-term adoption of CW and all that means.   We’re very proud of our school’s success.

And as I mentioned, we stay focused on the school’s success.  General Powell visited—not for a publicity op, but so that he could see and hear about the difference our program makes for the CW community, and so that our school community could meet General Powell.  We’re just not committed all this time for recognition—we’re committed to make a difference.

Q: Do you collaborate with other partnerships that are active within the school?

A: Yes, but it depends. We develop, run and fund our programs.  To benefit the students, we sometimes collaborate with other organizations we know.  We partner with Junior Achievement on improving our Mentees’ financial literacy through an interactive program during each Mentee visit.  Our field trip last year was to Bank of America’s headquarters, where their top leadership presented a great program on managing money, saving and banking.  This year we’ll head to Vanguard’s Great Valley campus to learn about investing.  We also reach out to some of our other nonprofit partners (we have more than 30 nonprofit projects).  I mentioned the Council for Relationships and the Walnut Street Theatre.  We’ve also worked with International House, the Franklin Institute, the National Liberty Museum and more. We’re delighted students from Episcopal tutor for our After-school program.

Q: What would you like to see happen for Cooke-Wissahickon in the future?

A: Continuing and expanded success!  The school population has grown—they can use more consumable supplies funding, more extra-curricular programs and activities, more money for their building, more dollars for support personnel, etc.   The school community has been very proactive in going after grants, but more support would be terrific. I also wish them visionary and concerned leadership—Cook-Wissahickon has been very fortunate in this regard.

I would like to see CW serve as a model and an inspiration for struggling schools across the city.  And I agree with Principal Thomas — I would like to see other businesses and institutions, colleges and universities, forge partnerships with schools in our region.  Great impacts can – and need to –happen!