October 20th, 2011

ACES Joins SPPS Foundation for Kick-Off

In late September, several ACES staff members attended ACES' partner St. Paul Public Schools Foundation's kick-off event. The meeting went over a variety of exciting initiatives taking place in St. Paul Public Schools, including building stronger communities, new family engagement training opportunities for parents, and curriculum changes. All of these developments reflect the strong desire from St. Paul Public Schools personnel to strengthen students’ success.

One of the keynote speakers, Jackie Turner, is the Executive Director of Family and Community Engagement for St. Paul Public Schools. Jackie is also a parent of one of our ACES students at Linwood Monroe Arts Plus School. The ACES staff members were excited to hear that her son is literally counting down the days until the start of program!

Over the course of this school year, ACES will work with SPPS Foundation on the Youth Program Quality Assessment, which is a a validated instrument designed to evaluate the quality of youth programs and identify staff training needs. We look forward to working with all of our great partners this year, including SPPS and the SPPS Foundation, in making a positive different in our students’ lives during the 2011-2012 school year!