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- 2001: Founding
- 2002: Getting on our feet
- The group received grant money from the Blank Foundation to hire a coordinator. Trident United Way graciously agreed to be our fiscal agent and help us get on our feet. In addition, the United Way offered office space for the coordinator. It was time to get going…
- February 2003:First Staff
- They hired Elizabeth DuPre to be the coordinator
- Spring 2003: First Event
- School’s Out hosted its first event, “Summer Fling”. The goal of the fling was to bring together various summer program opportunities for afterschool providers to use in their summer programs. Some of those first community resources were North Charleston Recreation, James Island County Parks and Recreation, City of Charleston Police Department, The Lowcountry Children’s Museum, The Yorktown and The County Libraries. In total 23 different community organizations.
- 2003-2004: Trainings
- Over the course of this year School’s Out provided numerous trainings to afterschool providers: tutor training, technology training, service learning and more. We collected a large database of providers and were serving 80-100 at our trainings. However, rallying the providers and finding consistency was sporadic. There was more than meets the eye, the lack of a network was the tip of the iceburg…
- Spring and Summer 2004: Market Research Analysis
- Elizabeth (Boo) Pennewill, a founding board member of School’s Out, and her husband, Tom Blazer, offered their company’s services to School’s Out. eSite is a local market research company. They provide clients with proven tools for analyzing existing markets and venturing into new ones. They use mapping software to visually display their findings.
- We all embarked on a journey to map out what communities were currently being served by afterschool programs, what businesses surrounded the communities and how did that information correlate with poverty rates and academic success.
- As a result, we came up with 15 high target areas: Elementary Schools that were above 90% free and reduced lunch, Serving less than 10% of their students in afterschool and had a below average or unsatisfactory report card.
- Bellsouth gave us the phonebook electronically and we resorted by Elementary School. Each elementary school was provided phonebook with their unique set of businesses that were geographically closest to them.
- October 2004: Present 360° report
(a market research analysis)
- We presented our findings in a visually powerful report to 50 local leaders.
- Winter 2004: St. Stephen Elementary contacts School’s Out
- After our fall report and the
 Post and Courier’s article, Principal Elaine Eadie contacted us to come to her school, St. Stephen Elementary.
- Spring 2005: St. Stephen Community gets together
- School’s Out held a series of community meetings and dinners to determine what this community had, what it needed and what it would take for St. Stephen Elementary to have an afterschool program. It was incredible. Allen Phillips who runs the local feed and seed spearheaded a committee. Teachers worked together to have a bake sale and raffle. Berkeley County School District worked with the principal to write a 21st Century grant.
- Spring 2005: School’s Out meets Mary Ford
- This is when the School’s Out-Mary Ford love affair began. School’s Out met with Principal Janice Malone and Community Leader Jim Frye. We all worked together to host a community meeting.
- Spring 2005: A new ballgame: North Charleston Recreation, Lowcountry Food Bank and School want to play together
- At the community meeting Parents, Grandparents, alumni and local businesses filled the art room.
- North Charleston Recreation director, Ed Barfield, stood up at the community meeting and said, “ I have a community center right next to this school. I have staff and am only serving 15 kids. I want to reach more kids and have wanted to be in this school for years. If you start a program, we will provide equipment and staff to run the recreation piece.”
- The Lowcountry Foodbank said, “If y’all can get together a program, we will provide dinner.”
- The principal said, “We can provide the homework piece.”
- Summer 2005: St. Stephen gets the grant
- St. Stephen received the grant and with all the community support they had built, they started an afterschool program that is still running. Student’s grades have improved, police offers teach manner’s classes, community members help run drama, dance and choir clubs. They also have a karate team that went to state championships!!!
- Summer 2005: Mary Ford’s Quest program is born
- School’s Out went to New Morning Foundation and pitched Mary Ford, explaining we have all these people who are willing to commit-we need a coordinator. New Morning offered support contingent on the School District providing the remaining amount.
- The School District agreed and Mary Ford’s Quest program was born.
- October 2005: Game time: Mary Ford kicks off program to community , see post and courier article
- December 2005: Mayor Riley visits Mary Ford
- Mayor Riley came to see what exactly was happening at Mary Ford, and he caught on quickly.
- The result: The City of Charleston needed to be rethinking how its resources were being used. They needed to collaboratively work together like Mary Ford.
- January 2006: School’s Out meets Fraser Elementary
- With the cheerleading of Mayor Riley, School’s Out worked with Fraser Elementary to hold community meetings. So many businesses, non-profits, municipal, school district, parents and community people came to support.
- April 2006: Joint grant for Fraser and Mary Ford
- With the help of the school district and all supporters of Mary Ford and Fraser, School’s Out wrote a 21st century grant to continue the operations at Mary Ford and start up at Fraser.
- May 2006: School’s Out gets 501 c-3 status
- With the help of George Morrison and McNair Law Firm, School’s Out gets its 501 c-3
- June 2006: School’s Out is on its own
- School’s Out no longer needs Trident United Way as its fiscal agent.
- Heather Bingham at Dixon Hughes offers to provide in kind accounting.
- July 2006: Fraser and Mary Ford get 21st century grant
- The School District is the fiscal agent
- School District administers program at Mary Ford
- Boys and Girls Club administer program at Fraser
- August 2006: The Terry Peterson obsession begins
- In Charleston, we have a community learning center guru, Terry Peterson. In April 2006 when writing the grant Elizabeth contacted Terry for advice on how do we make the leap to community learning center, and make it REALLY happen. He said, “If you get the grant, get the Mayors of Charleston and North Charleston together and the school district that I would help.”
- October 2006: Leadership Team is Born
- After several lunches, a little groveling and a lot of love, Bill Youngblood said he would help us get these leaders together.
- In October at McNair Law Firm, City of Charleston, City of North Charleston, Charleston County School District and some local businesses met.
- School’s Out presented them with our Community Learning Center concept: we want to follow a business model and have a neutral entity to coordinate all the existing entities in the school.
- Winter 2006: School’s Out does the Research
- With positive response from the leadership team and a lot of guidance from Terry Peterson, School’s Out began reading, calling and visiting every possible resource on Community Learning Centers.
- We fine tuned our model, met with businesses for advice and filled in gaps.
- February 2007: School’s Out submits Community Learning Center Proposal to 25 local business leaders, Mayors, School District and other stake holders
- March 2007: School’s Out Community Learning Center application for 2007-2008 school year begins, School’s Out meets with Principals
- Principals were given School’s Out’s proposal and interested principals were invited to apply to work with School’s Out to become a Community Learning Center
- The process:
- Principals were asked to send back a letter of interest
- Attend a meeting and bring a community leader
- Have an individual meeting with School’s Out to discuss financial commitments and budgets
- Principals responded favorably and confirmed we had the right idea and the need exist for a neutral coordinating entity. One principal said, “I have 16 programs in my school. I cannot have one of them coordinate everyone else, I cannot coordinate it myself and I am turning away people who want to help because I cannot manage it in addition to my day job. I have screamed for someone like you for 10 years, thank you for taking the time and listening to what we really need.” What more confirmation do you need…
- Spring 2007: District Wide Plan for Community Learning Centers: Work with Charleston County School District, Trident United Way and Charleston County Parks and Recreation to begin to develop district wide plan
- Obvious no one person can accomplish this task alone
- The School District, through Susan Friedrich and Dr. Nancy McGinley are providing incredible leadership for all stakeholders to work together to develop a district wide plan for Community Learning Centers. We could not be more excited!!!!
- Planning for 2007-2008 School Year: Learning from the past, Findings…
- College of Charleston offered to evaluate Mary Ford and Fraser. We did not run the afterschool program, but we wanted to know in going forward what could we learn from these partnerships we had facilitated.
- Businesses came and visited the schools to provide feedback.
- Ultimately, we learned:
- The Community Learning Center Coordinator must be an employee of School’s Out for accountability and neutrality
- Communication and sustainability planning are a must
- It is imperative to follow a business model
- The community, teachers and businesses are integral to success
- What now??
- Our goal is to run a full service Community Learning Center in 2007-2008
- We are working with the school district, Trident United Way and County Parks and Recreation to make sure we are in line with the district’s strategic plan
- We are working with the principals and will choose the school
- We are continuing our work with the Leadership Team to get advice and guidance moving forward
- We need you-it won’t happen without community wide support. Lets ALL get in the game!!!
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