Earlier this year, Calcasieu Parish School Board Director Dr. Michelle Joubert learned that her community would be losing their preschool development grant (PDG) funding. Dr. Joubert knew she needed to support early childhood centers in this transition, especially the seven centers who would lose classrooms as a result. Dr. Joubert contracted with Advancing Communities for Equity (ACE)  to create a plan that would direct funds to centers and teachers with minimal administrative burden for her team. ACE stepped up to plan for, coordinate, and manage two grants from the Louisiana Department of Education totaling close to $1M: the Community Supply Building And Expansion grant and the Louisiana Believes grant.

ACE directly supported in a number of ways:

• Provided technical assistance and guidance to seven early learning centers losing PDG funding 
• Coordinated five weekly executive coaching sessions for a total of 30 coaching sessions and arranged stipends for the attending executive directors 
• Supported marketing efforts by contracting with a design firm to create new logos, business cards, and recruitment materials 
• Provided writing support for centers’ website and brochure development 
• Facilitated Teaching Strategies GOLD training sessions that supported improvement planning with teams of directors and teachers
• Developed an incentive plan for high performing teachers, and coordinated communications, gathered tax documents, and arranged stipends for 140 teachers in Calcasieu Parish 
• Conducted an audit of TS Gold and CLASS data to inform a set of recommendations for the coming school year
• Managed, coordinated, and evaluated all deliverables from vendors, including a marketing firm, video production company, and online professional development subscription service.
  
  Our team for this project included a wide-variety of talented educators, strategists, and administrative professionals.

Dr. Michelle Joubert had this to say about working with our team:

ACE helped Calcasieu develop a strategy that reflected our Ready Start’s vision, supported our early learning centers, and reduced the administrative burden on our staff. Their team was organized, focused, and always delivered. We look forward to working with them again.