On September 28, the Rome City School District and the Connected Community Schools team marked their 5th anniversary and unveiled a new hub at Strough Middle School with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The event saw enthusiastic participation from various stakeholders, including the local community, Strough students, Rome staff, and esteemed dignitaries representing Rome, the state, and the county.
“Our mission is simply to partner with Public School Districts to create Connected Community Schools to ensure that students' and families' basic needs are met so they can engage in their education worry and struggle free allowing them to be successful and have fun. We owe our start to the Rome City School District and frankly, all the success and impact that has taken place after. We grew from Bellamy Elementary School to now 63 Connected Community Schools in 15 School Districts. The impact has been immeasurable for our families and communities. From 1.2 million lbs. of food distributed to literally thousands of students and their families being ‘connected’ to resources and services. This 5-year anniversary is hopefully just the beginning of decades of this kind of work; collaborative, impactful, meaningful work.” Melissa Roys, Co-Leader Connected Community Schools.
The road to this achievement was long and challenging. “I would like to thank the support from the Rome community. It takes money to do these types of things. Our district was committed to making sure we fund this project. The American Federation of Teachers was instrumental and thanks to our (Rome) Teachers Association. Thank you to the efforts of Madison-Oneida BOCES: Dr. Matt Williams, Lisa Decker, and Scott Budelmann. It takes about 4 years to build what’s called a Coser, which allowed this project to be sustainable. Due to that work, we have all of these districts involved. This is a project that will be financially sustainable both thanks to the contributions of private companies, agencies, and governments, said Peter Blake, Superintendent of Schools.
