While the blog goes on summer vacation, we’ll spend the coming weeks sharing past blog posts about how City Connects helps students thrive.
This week’s roundup shares what principals think about City Connects.
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What principals and teachers say about City Connects
November 9, 2023
We’ve released a new video that shares what a principal and a teacher think about the power of City Connects.
“Kids aren’t coming to school and thinking about, Alright, I’m just going to work my best today,” Dr. Leah Blake McKetty, a principal in Boston Public Schools, said in the video. “They’re thinking about food. They’re thinking about a jacket to put on. They’re thinking about where they’re living.”
City Connects addresses this challenge by placing Coordinators in schools who help students and families access food, clothing, and other basic needs, so that students can focus on school.
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Cynthia Scheller is focusing on fidelity to have a bigger impact on kids
June 8, 2023
For much of her career, Cynthia Scheller has asked one question: How could she have a larger, more positive impact on students? As City Connects’ new Director of Student Support Programs and Practice, she’s finding answers.
After graduate school, Scheller became a music teacher and learned the leadership lessons that come from teaching music to large groups of kids. During her years as a teacher, she earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership.
Scheller went on to become an elementary school principal, first in Providence then in North Kingstown. Even then, Scheller wanted to have more impact. Eventually she learned about City Connects.
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Educators from Dublin and Springfield talk about City Connects
March 28, 2024
Last week, we proudly welcomed the principals of the 10 City Connects schools in Dublin, Ireland, to meet with our staff at Boston College.
It was a wonderful chance to share ideas and strategies about how City Connects helps schools understand and address the needs and interests of their students.
One of the most inspiring sessions was a discussion on implementing City Connects in large cities that occurred between the Dublin principals and Daniel Warwick, Superintendent of the Springfield Public Schools in Massachusetts. Warwick was joined by Jessica Davila, the principal of Springfield’s Alice B. Beal School, and Stephanie Sanabria, Springfield’s City Connects Program Manager.
