Explanation
Mayor Ginther’s vision for Columbus, America’s Opportunity City, is to create access to a high-quality pre-kindergarten education for every 4-year-old. Addressing early childhood learning means bringing awareness and resources to a critical learning stage in childhood development. Children who come to school ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically and in life.
Children who participate in high-quality pre-kindergarten experiences significantly improve their early literacy, language, and math skills. Ample evidence shows that children who enter school unprepared fall farther and farther behind. Students who get a poor start in their earliest years are likely to struggle in high school and subsequently, fail to graduate.
Through Early Start Columbus, the Office of Education provides high-quality pre-kindergarten services to children throughout the City. However, data provided by Future Ready Columbus, an education-focused public-private partnership, shows that kindergarten readiness scores in the Linden and Whitehall communities are lower than scores county-wide. Therefore the Office of Education plans to focus summer programming on those areas.
This contract will be entered into in compliance with relevant procurement provisions of the Columbus City Codes Section 329.30.
FISCAL IMPACT: This ordinance authorizes an expenditure of $298,000.00 from the 2023 Office of Education’s General Fund operating budget.
EMERGENCY DESIGNATION: Emergency designation is requested so programming may begin during the summer months.
Title
To authorize the Director of the Office of Education to enter into a contract with Family, Adolescent and Child Community Engagement Services (FACCES), a non-profit organization that specializes in family engagement with a focus on academic navigation through their K-Ready Ohio program; to focus specifically in preparing children in Linden and Whitehall for kindergarten; to authorize the expenditure of $298,00...
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