City Year New York on NYC Budget Cuts to Education

The recently announced budget cuts to New York City services announced by Mayor Eric Adams are impacting all city agencies—from police to libraries to schools. Our guest is Quamid Francis, Executive Director of City Year New York, to talk about how the budget cuts put Community Schools in jeopardy. City Year New York is a trailblazing, youth-powered organization with a dual mission: expanding educational equity for students furthest from opportunity and developing diverse leaders through national service. For more, visit cityyear.org.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto Get Connected. The recently announced budget
cuts to New York City services announcedby Mayor Eric Adams are impacting all city
agencies, from police to libraries toeducation. Our guest is Qualm and friends

(00:26):
is executive director of City Year NewYork, to talk about their partnership with
the New York Department of Education andhow budget cuts would impact their work in
New York City schools. You canfind out more about City Year at CityYear
dot org. And Quamadfrancis, thankyou for being on Get Connected. It's
a pleasure to be here. Thankyou for having me. So before we
get into the current events, let'stalk about City Year New York. What

(00:47):
does your organization do? Yes,thank you so. City or New York
or City here generally is an educationbased nonprofit and we are located across twenty
nine sites in the country throughout thecountry, include in affiliates in South Africa
and in the UK. City orNew York. We're unique in that we
are the only city or site thatpartners with what's called community schools, and
I'm happy to talk a little bitabout that later. And so what we

(01:11):
do is we work with AmeriCorps astheir largest grantee by recruiting and developing young
americ WARP members to become student successcoaches. We place teams of those coaches
in our partner schools across the city, which includes seventeen schools mostly concentrated in
East New York, East Harlem andin the South Bronx. The number one
priority for our Americorp members who servicestudent success coaches is to form positive developmental

(01:37):
relationships with our students such that oncethey have those trust relationships, then you
can move the needle and undressing thingslike chronic apps andeeism in addition to social
emotional skills and support, as wellas academic performance in ELA and math.
And so that's the number one priorityagain for our AmeriCorps members who service student
success coaches, is to form thosetrust and relationships to move the needle and

(01:59):
addressing chronicasenteeism, socially emotional behaviors,and academic performance. And how did you
get involved? Were you one ofthose members before one of the American members.
I was not an AmeriCorps member,but I served in a different capacity
in the military. So the serviceecosystem or ethos rather, is really primed
in generosity, serving for causes biggerthan yourselves. And so in that regard,

(02:22):
there's a lot of similar disciplines thatI bring with me for my military
service into this work working with veteransand their families around education and workforce development,
which also is a part of ourprogram in So as of the twenty
twenty two to twenty three school year, there were four hundred and twenty one
community schools across every district in NewYork City, funded through city, state,

(02:43):
and federal dollars. We'll talk aboutthe money, but what are community
schools and how do they differ fromother schools. So a community school,
it's a it's a public school thatserves as the hub of its neighborhood,
United Families, Education and community partnersas an evidence based strategy to promote equity

(03:04):
and educational accidents excellence for each childwithin those particular schools. And it's an
approach that really strengthens families in communities, and you know, city or New
York We are one of the onlynonprofits in New York City that blends our
whole school whole child model, workingwith Americorp members and community schools. And
so we actually just launched a playbookin that regard that talks about how young

(03:29):
adults can you know, support inthe classrooms to provide an auxiliary but essential
support two teachers, two schools andtwo students as well. And how are
these particular schools identified in the firstplace to become part of the community school
model. There are several different factors. Most community schools, I will tell
you our schools that have high ratesof chronic absenteeism, where they are schools

(03:53):
where there are high rates of social, socially emotional behavioral incidents, so things
like suspension for example, and whereliteracy and math rates are severely lower in
the lower quarter tile of their schooldistricts. And so that's one of the
three factors, the prevailing factors thatdetermines where what school becomes the community schools,

(04:16):
in addition to other factors that theadministration and the Department of Education may
deem necessary as well. But Iwould say what the essence of community schools
supports those three categories or ABC's aswe like to call it, attendance,
behavior and coursework. So there're schoolsthat needed additional supports. Yeah, these
are typically resource starved schools and researchstarved communities, as like I mentioned earlier,

(04:40):
East Harlem, South Bronx, andEast New York. So the pandemic
in addition to all of that thatwas already going on, the pandemic obviously
upended a lot of things. Howhave you seen classrooms evolve since then?
And how has it informed what you'redoing now? Well, like in many
different instances, across different contexts andin every sector, pandemic disrupted a lot

(05:00):
of things in schools. Again,in the communities that we serve, in
the schools that we serve in,there are already challenges around attendance, already
challenges around literacy and math scores andsocially emotional behavioral incidents. It has only
exacerbated that. And then you couplethat with the surge of assili seekers that
have come into our schools and thathas no doubt placed a strain in school's

(05:26):
ability to meet students where they are. And so you know, coming out
of the pandemic, you know,one of the things that we are paying
close attention to is what does thatbaseline look like? Again? Right,
we know that we've instituted some digitallearning, literacy programs and math programs and
meet students where they are during thepandemic. So we're in a state of
evaluate and really again like once thedust really settles, and it may take

(05:49):
a few years for that, butlike, what does that baseline look like?
What are those prevailing needs that comingout of the pandemic that we need
to focus on. Again, we'reseeing that it is product absenteeism. It
continues to be socially emotional behavioral incidents, and certainly continues to be academic performances.
We're speaking with Prominent Francis He's executivedirector of City Year New York,

(06:11):
who leads the staff and two hundredand ten AmeriCorps members who serve full time
in seventeen of the New York Cityschools, reaching over seven thousand students each
day. City Year New York isa trailblazing youth powered organization with a dual
mission to expand educational equity for students, furthest from opportunity and developing diverse leaders
through national service. You can findout more at cityear dot org. You're

(06:32):
listening to get connected on one ohsix point seven light FM. I'mina del
Rio. So as you're looking fora new baseline, we also have,
as you mentioned, the migrant crisis, and because of the migrant crisis,
Mayor Eric Adams has announced that allcity agencies must cut fifteen percent from their
budget, that includes the education department. How would that potentially affect you and

(06:53):
community schools. Here's a thing.It's no secret that the migrant crisis has
caused a stre on the city's budget, and so it's something that we have
to take seriously and we're mindful of. Right. You know, we understand
that the administration has a set ofpriorities that it has to focus on to
ensure that schools are supported in away that they deserve to be supported.

(07:17):
And so, you know, whilethe budget is being strained by the expenditures
that as a result that results fromthe migrant crisis. Now would not be
a time to divest in community schoolsbecause it works, as I mentioned,
chronic absenteeism, right, that's whatcommunity schools are designed in part to support,

(07:39):
so reducing the amount of social emotionalbehavioral incidents. Again, we know
that the community school model addresses thathead on. And similarly for those resource
stof communities that don't have the academiccurriculums or tools to be successful to ensure
that, you know, all studentsreceive an equitable and excellent education. That's

(08:01):
what's community school is designed to support. And so coming out of the pandemic,
all of those areas have been exacerbated. So while we are navigating budgetary
issues, now is the time toand we acknowledge that now is not the
time to divest. We have tomake this a priority. So when we're
thinking about prioritizing, you think aboutwhen you think about different priorities that the

(08:26):
mayor is facing, this has tobe one of them, right, And
I could give you a couple examplesas it relates to literacy and math that
we've made a huge impact on.You know, in all of our partner
schools, we've had increased proficiency sixfoldin the two years of us partnering with
our school partners across the city,from six percent honor above grade level in

(08:48):
the fall of twenty twenty two tothirty seven percent in the spring of twenty
twenty three. That's for literacy.For math, we went from five percent
on or above grade level in thefall of twenty twenty two to twenty two
percent in the spring of twenty twentytie, and so that's a decrease of
twenty one percentage points a proportion ofthe students who were two to three grade
levels below proficiency. And so thatwork does not happen without community schools.

(09:11):
Community schools provide so much different andrigorous and data driven strategies to address all
the different impediments to a child's learningand development. So as we come out
of this COVID environment, it's timeto invest more in community schools, scale
it because we know it works.As we're having this conversation in early December,

(09:31):
cuts have not been announced, finaldecisions have not been made. What
do you see so far? Whatis your outlook? Yeah, so we
don't have a clear sense of whendecisions will be made around community school funding
or cuts in terms of how toaffect in a material way in FY twenty
five, in terms of you know, school mergers or closings or expansions.

(09:54):
There's a lot of uncertainty right now. Certainly there's a lot of quantifiable risk,
but we face a lot of uncertainand I know you know our organization
as well as other community based organizationwho support community schools, we're all sort
of operating in a wilderness right now, so no clear path forward in terms
of knowing where the chips may fall. Around the time the budget cuts were

(10:16):
announced, City or New York andthe Lego Foundation released The Power of Student
Success Coaches in Community Schools. Youhad referred to this earlier. If you
could highlight one recommendation from that reportto the administration if you have some negotiating
room as the cuts are being discussed, what would that be. Well,
I'll talk a little bit about theplaybooks. So the playbook that we launched

(10:37):
partnership with the Lego Foundation, itculminates more than a year of research,
school site visits, a focused groupdiscussions with community school leaders, community based
organizations that operate schools, and otherpractitioners in the community school space. It
outlines our learnings from Student Success CoachPREGIM and in community schools by elevating key

(10:58):
and rec current themes around things likeschool leadership, partnerships and community engagement,
among other opportunities. And so ourgoal and our hope for this playbook is
to provide valuable insight, examples andspecific guidance and recommendations for schools and districts
seeking to harness and integrated socially,emotional and academic approach to supporting student learning.

(11:22):
So that's a little bit about theplaybook. And so my recommendation therefore
is for the administration at the citylevel but also at the state level to
expand community schools. Right, expandingcommunity schools would help us bring in more
federal dollars through Americo or funding becausewe can recruit more Americare members to become
student success coaches, particularly to supporthistorically under resource communities. So you know,

(11:46):
that's my main recommendation is to expandcommunity schools, you unlock a lot
more federal dollars. And again,community schools and student success coaches are focused
on creating safe, equitable, engagingand inclusive learning and environments, and so
enabling all those you know, environmentsfor our students will be you know,

(12:07):
ensure that students are provided with personalized, asset based support. So expand community
schools unlock more federal dollars and philanthropicdotals that comes with organizations who are passionate
about community schooling and student success coachesin New York City. New York is
also looking at the end of pandemiceight by years, and that's a whole
other conversation. But would you advocatefor the reinstatement of those funds and why

(12:31):
not? Only would I recommend forthe reinstatement, Let's go further, let's
invest more funding. I just outlinedtoday during our time here the impact that
community school has on literacy, rateson math, rates on attendance, and
then socially, socially emotional, behavioralsupport systems. And so we should go
deeper. The whole nation should takeup community schools. In fact, last

(12:54):
year, the President President Biden launchedwhat's called the National Partnership for Students Success
that is based on the City yourmodel, And I should note that we're
the lead technical assistance provider for thatstrategy. The strategy calls for two hundred
and fifty thousand student mentors and tutorsto support learn and recovery coming out of

(13:15):
the pandemic. And so it's anotherindicator of the success of our model and
student success coach and in community schools. But on the community school model,
in and of itself. What happenson the ground should community school funding be
cut, Well, the opportunity costsare enormous. You will lose a lot
of that federal dollars that come throughAmeriCorps funding. You know right now AmeriCorps

(13:39):
is you know city here is AmeriCorpslargest grantee in the education space. So
you think about in city or inNew York is the largest city site across
the country. So you think aboutthe federal funding that would be lost.
So that's a huge opportunity cost philanthropic. To date, in the twenty years
of our existence, we've injected directlyand indirectly about ninety million dollars in philanthropic

(14:03):
capital to New York City schools,to those schools that are most resourced starts.
So you would think about all thatcapital that would be lost, but
you would also lose the connections thatour students value from our student success coaches.
The value of that near peer modelof having eighteen to twenty five year
olds supporting students through in class supportsas well as academic tutor in after school

(14:24):
is enormous. You know, thosestudents they confide in our their near peers
and their student success coaches about thingsthat they wouldn't otherwise go to their teachers
about because of that proximity and age, and so that emotional support, that
trust an adult with whom they canthat resonates with who they are as students,
many of them coming from those samecommunities serving as student success coaches.

(14:46):
I mean that opportunity costs cannot evenbe quantified. What would you want,
especially a parent with a child inNew York City schools, to take away
from this conversation I think they shouldtake away is that community school works.
Student success coaching in particular in communityschool works, and if you think about
all the different supports that a parentyou know, would have to provide to

(15:09):
their student beyond just being a parentin and of itself, but the after
school supports, the in class supports, that type of support. It doesn't
come easily for sure, and it'ssupport that our parents we know that they
value because when our students are beingdropped off by their parents or picked up,
parents of our students are always youknow, having sidebar where our community

(15:31):
school directors and student success coaches abouthow they're in their peer, their student
success coach, their City Year Memberhas had huge impact on their kids' lives,
especially from a social, emotional andacademic perspectives. What they've been able
to do in terms of unlock differentopportunities for them to engage and learn in

(15:52):
it's just enormous, And so theparents know the value they've seen city up
and close. We host a lotof different parental engagement events and so the
very familiar with our work and Ithink they would be hugely disappointed to know
that you know their student, theirchild does not have their City Year Member
no longer at their schools. Youcan find out more at cityear dot org.
Quamit Francis is executive director of CityYear, New York. Thank you

(16:15):
for being on to Get Connected.Thank you so much for having me.
This has been Get Connected with Ninadel Rio on one oh six point seven
light Fm. The views and opinionsof our guests do not necessarily reflect the
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