Our Work

You must have Javascript enabled to view the email addresses on this page.

Great Schools Charles Village

The Goldseker Neighborhood-School Partnership Grant at Margaret Brent and Barclay Elementary/Middle Schools

What is it?

Recognizing the important role schools play in choosing a neighborhood, the Goldseker Foundation created a new funding opportunity this year to identify, invest in, and promote schools in designated Healthy Neighborhoods that

Margaret Brent School 1

are meeting performance standards and offering great education options in Baltimore City. Healthy Neighborhoods helps strong but undervalued Baltimore neighborhoods increase home values, market their communities, create high standards for property improvements, and forge strong connections among neighbors.

The Goldseker Foundation's Neighborhood-School Partnership Grants are designed to encourage joint neighborhood and school investment, as well as marketing activities. Our objectives are:

To recruit and retain families with school-age children to to live in Healthy Neighborhoods.
To increase enrollment of middle-class families from Healthy Neighborhoods in local neighborhood schools.

Who is involved?

Barclay Elementary/Middle School serves 479 students in grades PreK-8 from the Abell, Harwood, and Upper Charles Village communities of north central Baltimore. Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School serves 260 students from the Charles Village and Remington communities in grades PreK-8.

Named by the American Planning Association as one of the 10 Great Neighborhoods in America for 2008, Charles Village was one of Baltimore's original Healthy Neighborhoods. Median sales prices for homes in the neighborhood nearly

The two schools' principals (Dr. Waters-Scofield, right and Principal Heinbaugh, left) with City Schools CEO Dr. Andres Alonzo.

tripled from 2000 through 2009, from $71,800 to $214,200. Sales prices for homes on Healthy Neighborhoods target blocks more than tripled during that same period, from $66,000 to $235,000.

Both Barclay and Margaret Brent have longstanding partnerships with the Greater Homewood Community

Corporation (GHCC), which implements the Healthy Neighborhoods program in the community. GHCC places AmeriCorps*VISTA members and Experience Corps volunteers in the schools, and works to strengthen family and community engagement. These partners are propelled by a vision of strong, diverse neighborhood schools that are the first choice of all

neighborhood families to enroll their children. Barclay is a certified Maryland Green School, which uses the schoolyard habitat to teach children about nature and the environment, and where at least 84% of students have scored proficient or advanced on both the reading and math portions of the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) test in the last two years.

Margaret Brent is a smaller school, with a family-like environment where 80% of students met or exceeded state standards in reading on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) in 2008-09, and 67% made the state grade in mathematics. The school has a strong partnership with the nearby Village Learning Place, a community-created library with after-school programs for students.

What does it mean?

GHCC partnered with Margaret Brent and the Barclay Schools to apply for this grant. The award of $105,000 is broken down as follows:

Each school will receive $35,000 for curriculum and professional development to implement a thematic, project-based curriculum.
GHCC, the lead non-profit organization for the project, will receive $30,000 for staffing a steering committee and community organizing around these schools.
An additional $5,000 will be available to help market the schools to families in the neighborhood.

Where do we go from here?

Many stakeholders participated in conversations to shape the grant proposal and approach to school improvement, including GHCC staff, the school principals, community residents, current and prospective parents, and Loyola University School of Education faculty members. Throughout these conversations there was widespread agreement that the community can indeed build on the current strengths of these schools to attract and retain new families, as well as create a school population that reflects the diversity of the neighborhoods.

Gardening with neighbors and students at the Barclay School. The group decided that the money for each of the two schools would be best used to develop a curriculum with a thematic focus. The emphasis will be on place-based learning; utilizing the rich cultural and historical environment in which these schools and children are situated as a real-life text book. Loyola University School of Education has already committed to providing the professional development and ancillary services necessary to make this happen.

Inspired by the discussions and the project, several of these parents founded a neighborhood parents group, the "Village Parents," whose mission includes supporting a new Great Schools Charles Village initiative.

We will be marketing the schools through new websites, brochures and other marketing materials, open-house/principal-guided tours of the schools, and grassroots strategies involving community volunteers and support.

How can YOU help?

Great Schools Charles Village is enlisting the whole community to take part in the work and support their neighborhood schools!

To make this vision a reality, we need the entire community to become part of this effort: residents, businesses, and institutions. Please make a resolution to get involved!

1. Join a committee of the Great Schools in Charles Village Steering Committee

marketing (contact: aGyD C5KD5J, 410.261.3516)
curriculum (contact: rSK5D E5nSvU, 410.261.3505)

2. Take a school tour to find out more about the schools.

For information contact:
- Principal Dr. Jacqueline Waters-Scofield @ Margaret Brent (5vSh0, 410.396.6509)
- Principal Jenny Heinbaugh @ Barclay (5vSh0, 410.396.6387) or check out the Barclay website at http://barclay.baltimorecityschools.org

3. Share your knowledge of neighborhood history, art, architecture and civic activism to help us build a rich community curriculum. Share your knowledge of math, science, literature and other disciplines to help us build a more rigorous curriculum.

Contact Karen DeCamp (5vSh0, 410.261.3505)

4. Offer your skills! We currently need help in these areas:

graphic design
marketing - help us tell the story of these great schools
organizing - to help develop stronger parent organizations at the schools

5. Join volunteers to spruce up the schools with fresh paint and other improvements.

sign up for our Great Schools Charles Village eList to stay up to date on volunteer events happening at our Great Schools!

6. Volunteer in the school - many opportunities exist, from the Story Pals program to Experience Corps.

contact: Ken Fockele @ Margaret Brent (5vSh0, 443.691.7819)

Kelly Oglesbee @ Barclay School (5vSh0, 443.277.8276)

7. Help us spread the word about Great Schools in Charles Village.

talk with your neighbors, friends, customers, colleagues and encourage them to learn more about the great things happening at these two Great Schools!

8. Join our eList to get periodic updates about marketing our Great Schools!

contact John Bernet (5vSh0, 410.261.3516)

Got an idea? Want more information? Partnership Contact: Karen DeCamp, GHCC Director of Neighborhood Programs, 410-261-3505, kdecamp@greaterhomewood.org.