The Newburgh Enlarged City School District is committed to ensuring every scholar has access and opportunity to quality academic programs and supports to be successful, regardless of race, economic status, or circumstance. To fulfill this commitment, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, the district expanded the Division of Equity and Access by creating two new leadership positions, Assistant Superintendent-Chief Equity Officer, the Executive Director for Youth Development and Community Engagement, and three new Family and Community Engagement positions.
The Division of Equity and Access assumed responsibility and oversight of Registration, My Brother’s Keeper, Extended School Year Programs, Superintendent Hearings and Suspensions, Adult and Continuing Education, and Family and Community Engagement (FACE) to name a few key responsibilities.
WELCOME CENTER
After considering the needs of our scholars and community, a newly created Welcome Center was established which provided families a hub of community and district resources upon registering new scholars to the district. This reorganization allowed Registration and the FACE team to collaborate in a way to make families feel welcomed by ensuring bilingual staff were available at all times to respond to families’ needs and to leverage the expertise of the staff and resources to maximize the support offered.
RELAUNCH OF MBK
In November 2019, the division worked to celebrate the relaunch of My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The keynote speaker was Mr. David Banks, CEO of Eagle Academy. His message to all of the stakeholders that attended was to provide scholars with a voice, structure, mentorship, positive affirmation, and hope. The National My Brother’s Keeper Initiative was launched in 2014 by President Barack Obama to address the gaps of opportunity young men of color are faced with nationwide. With a renewed energy, all schools in the district accepted the MBK Challenge and created school chapters to specifically provide leadership development, academic supports, mentoring, college and career exploration, and other targeted supports for our boys and young men of color.
INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION
Additionally, Equity & Access has worked with the Division of Exceptional Learners and various community-based organizations in Orange County to communicate and collaborate in efforts to support the social, emotional, and mental health of our scholars. The Interagency Collaboration model was designed to parallel a multi-tiered system of support to provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 targeted and intensive interventions by utilizing a data-informed and problem-solving process.
OPERATION FAMILY CONNECTION
During the school closure, the division collaborated with school leaders and the Division of Technology and Finance (Food Services and Buildings & Grounds) to conduct Operation Family Connection. This outreach involved connecting with the community and faith-based leaders to elicit their assistance to share with their members the outreach the district made to check-in with scholars, provide information regarding Chromebooks, Hotspots, and meal distribution. A dedicated hotline was created for families to call in the event that there were any barriers preventing them from accessing the supports being provided. Moreover, flyers with the hotline were also disseminated in prominent areas in the community.
For families that we were unable to connect with by telecommunication, letters were mailed home outlining the attempts that have been made and the hotline for families to call if they needed support. Lastly, after the aforementioned attempts were made, there were still some families that we were unable to connect with and as a result, teams were formed with the support of our School Monitors, senior and building leaders to conduct home visits. These collaborative efforts allowed our district to connect with approximately 98.5% of all of our scholars and families.
