CIS History in Delaware
CIS came to Delaware in 1992 after Dave Campbell, Superintendent of the Colonial School District heard CIS founder Bill Milliken speak on the importance of building relationships with young people in order to help them succeed in school. Shortly thereafter, the precursor to CIS of Delaware, Cities in Schools of New Castle County began at Wm. Penn High School. Since that time, project sites have opened at Brandywine High School, Thomas McKean High School and Howard High School of Technology.
In November 2003, we opened the newest site at Georgetown Elementary School in the Indian River School District. Currently we're located in 6 School Districts and 8 Schools.
In Delaware, a project site is defined as having an on-site Project Director who is responsible for working with the school administration, faculty and staff to identify the needs specific to that site. The most prevalent issues identified by the schools include attendance, behavior and academic performance issues.
The State of CIS in Delaware 2008
It may be the smallest state in the Communities In Schools network, but CIS’ presence in Delaware has grown by leaps and bounds under the leadership of state director Jim Purcell and CIS of Delaware Board of Directors.
CIS in Delaware dates back to 2002, when the state office and local affiliate (both located in Dover, Delaware) were launched simultaneously – the state office to provide oversight and resource development, and the affiliate to coordinate programs and services for Delaware students at risk of dropping out.
In the last five years CIS of Delaware has gone from being 93% publicly funded to 56% respectively. Corporate donations and private grants have grown from 4% in 2003 to 19% in 2007. We have diversified our funding sources and continue to balance public dollars with private dollars as well as service fee dollars which make up 22% of our annual revenue. Meanwhile, our expenditures for program services and implementation has grown from $250,000 in 2003 to $375,000 in 2007. Finally, our administration and service overhead remains low at just $50,000 in 2006-2007.
Growth and Expansion
CISDE has seen growth in our current school districts and in new school districts throughout the state. We have added staff and expanded services in our current schools and have been working with our funding and service partners to develop new programs and services to address the needs of our students.
Some of the current growth includes developing additional sites in the Brandywine School District and Indian River School District. Our expansion areas have included Capital School District at Dover High School, Christina School District and East Side Charter School in Wilmington.
CISDE has witnessed growth in our funding and service partners throughout the state. We gladly partner with the University of Delaware to bring Public Allies to various school sites to assist in service delivery and program implementation. The Public Allies have increased our capacity to build relationships and focus more on the individual needs of our schools and students. Recently, we received generous financial support from Citibank and JP Morgan Chase in support of our On Track initiative. Bank of America stepped forward financially to help us with our expansion into Capital School District at Dover High School. Finally we continue to work with a wide array of school reform and school support projects like Rodel’s Vision 2015, The Wilmington Metropolitan Urban League’s “Achievement Matter’s”, the Hope Commission in Wilmington and the Dover Caring Coalition.
In 2007, CIS provided whole school services to 6559 students in 7 schools in the state. Services targeted for specific students enrolled in a CIS initiative numbered 543 across the state.
CIS of Delaware has identified the following positive outcomes for students who were case managed by local site directors. Data reported is for the 2006-2007 school year:
- Improved Attendance - 72 percent of the 276 students tracked for attendance showed improvement in attendance.
- Improvement in Behavior - 72 percent of the 136 students tracked for discipline problems had fewer incidents of discipline.
- Improvement in Academics - 81 percent of the 166 students tracked for academic performance showed improvement in academic performance.
- Promotion - 82 percent of the 454 students tracked for promotion risk were promoted to the next grade.
- Graduation - 76 percent of 89 eligible seniors graduated.
Communities In Schools is an innovator in tackling the dropout problem in America. We work with those who are the most disenfranchised in our society to remove barriers to school success. We have honed the concept of school-based, integrated student support services by mobilizing resources that already exist in the community and bringing them into schools to address specific, identified needs such as academic enrichment, mentoring and parental involvement. Our model is the most effective, sustainable and scalable solution to the dropout problem that exists.
For more information about our current CIS sites and developing sites please contact Jim Purcell in the CIS state office at 302-857-1744.
