Select Projects: Education

Double the Numbers Coalition: Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Community Building Institute serves as the lead consultant for the community wide coalition brought together to double the numbers of DC public high school students who complete college within five years. Lead consultant Potapchuk, in partnership with Adam Kernan-Schloss from KSA-Plus Communications, co-authored, Double the Numbers for College Success: A Call to Action for the District of Columbia. Tasks have included design of the initiative, facilitation of numerous meetings, strategic advice, and support for workgroups.

Strategic Plan and Master Education Plan, DCPS: The Community Building Institute, in partnership with KSA-Plus Communications, facilitated the work of DCPS senior management and co-authored the Declaration of Education: Keeping our Promise to the District’s Children. The strategic plan built upon extensive civic engagement processes of the DC Education Compact. With an expanded team, we helped DCPS develop its widely acclaimed Master Education Plan. The team supported numerous strategic sessions among DCPS personnel; designed, lead, and managed a community wide civic engagement process; supported a project website; and co-wrote the resulting plan.

Strategic Repositioning, DC VOICE: DC VOICE, a leading local education fund, engaged the Community Building Institute to assist with a strategic repositioning of the organization as it sought to increase its impact. Efforts included stakeholder interviews, facilitation of focus groups, researching best practices from other cities, and facilitating Board strategic planning sessions as well as providing support for an executive director transition.

Strategic Repositioning, Community Foundation of the National Capital Region. The Community Foundation asked the Community Building Institute to assist its efforts in becoming a convenor of regional problem solving efforts around education and workforce issues. Efforts include facilitating of focus groups, staff retreats, and Board meetings; best practices research of other community foundation and regional intermediaries, offering strategic advice, and authoring and editing major documents prepared for the process.

School Planning, Graham Road Elementary School, Fairfax County. Working with the support of Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools, the Community Building Institute facilitated a community based consensus building process to plan the future of the school. Efforts led to consensus on using a community school model and on a siting decision.

Strategic Plan, PreK Now. The Community Building Institute helped the staff and Advisory Board of PreK Now, a public education and advocacy organization that advances high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three and four year olds, develop a five year strategic plan that advances their work throughout the country.

Strategic Planning, Coalition for Community Schools. Potapchuk has led a strategic planning process for the Coalition for Community Schools, an alliance of national, state and local organizations in education K-16, youth development, community planning and development, family support, health and human services, government and philanthropy advocating for community schools as the vehicle for strengthening schools, families and communities so that together they can improve student learning. Utilizing a scenario-based strategic planning process, the effort include facilitating three national gatherings, offering strategic guidance to staff, and authoring and editing numerous documents.

Facilitation of National Summit, Learning First Alliance. The Learning First Alliance, a permanent partnership of 17 leading education associations with more than 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning in America’s public schools, convened a national summit to share lessons and build a national agenda. The Community Building Institute helped LFA design the consensus building, managed a team of facilitators and recorders, and facilitated 400 person plenary sessions to build the national agenda.

Durham (NC) School Merger Task Force. Served as senior member of 15-person intervention team assembled by the Durham Dispute Settlement Center to facilitate an 82 member task force charged with making recommendations on how to improve the quality of public education in Durham County and City and on whether the City School District (a majority black district whose boundaries reflected the municipal boundaries of 1890) and the County School District (a majority white district whose boundaries included the county and more affluent parts of the city) should merge. Effort included designing the process for the task force, facilitating early task force meetings, providing coaching and guidance to other members of the facilitation team, and coaching the chair of the task force. Task force reached consensus on a 105-page document that included steps toward merger. School districts merged in 1992 and opened doors in fall 1993.

Meeting and Worshop Facilitiation. In addition to extended projects, the Community Building Institute provides meeting and workshop facilitation services. Recent projects have included:

• Facilitating a cross-site session on the role of philanthropy in building and sustaining citywide out-of-school time systems. The meeting was co-hosted by the Wallace Foundation and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers.
• Facilitating the Philanthropy Sector and the Building Public Will work group of the DC Education Compact.
• Facilitating a strategic thinking session for the Board of Directors of the DC Education Compact.
• Facilitating numerous sessions for the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation including Summer Strategy Sessions, staff retreats, Board retreats, and sessions to help develop a major grant application for the Wallace Foundation.