Explanation
Mayor Ginther’s vision for Columbus, America’s Opportunity City, is that all children are ready for kindergarten. To reach this goal, the Department of Education uses different tools and collaborates with certain organizations in the preparation of our children. Ready4Success (R4S), administered by the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy at the Ohio State University, uses a multi-pronged strategy to support providers in preparing children for Kindergarten success. The goal of the R4S initiative is to improve children’s outcomes and kindergarten readiness. It does so by focusing on the instructional practices of prekindergarten teachers.
On July 22, 2019 Columbus City Council approved ordinance 1526-2019, that allowed the Department of Education to partner with the Crane Center for the R4S program for the 2019-2020 academic year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all early childhood education programs that did not have a special license to serve the children of essential workers were ordered to close. Because of this, the R4S team was only able to provide limited virtual coaching services to teachers who remained employed.
Although the immediate future of childcare centers remains unclear, R4S staff seeks to utilize the remaining funds previously allotted for fiscal year 2020 to continue to support R4S teachers as centers begin to re-open.
Therefore, the Department of Education requests permission to extend the 2019-2020 contract with the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy at the Ohio State University to continue this crucial work. This ordinance allows the Department of Education to extend the deadline of the existing contract to December 31, 2020. PO187670 has a remaining amount of $67,000.00.
FISCAL IMPACT: No additional funds are needed to modify these agreements.
EMERGENCY DESIGNATION: Emergency designation is requested to ensure that the contract extension is effective before the original contract...
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