LEADERSHIP UNITED™

Leadership United™ is an initiative to match school principals and business/community leaders in co-mentoring partnerships that will

• help principals gain additional perspective and skills to help them manage their schools,
•  develop deeper understanding of public education among business, faith and community leaders. and, ultimately
• provide more resources for schools and students from the community.

The initiative was conceived as a way to engage the community in new ways to support schools and provide needed resources for students, and to help principals build new skills.

“Everyone recognizes that school—community partnerships will be increasingly important in the future as education finances continue to be tight,” says Support Our Schools Executive Director Roger Barr. “This is, however, very intensive work. Support Our Schools serves as a bridge organization between schools and the community. Working with principals, we will profile the needs of the school.  We also profile the resources that interested businesses, faith communities and community organizations could make available, within their means, to a school.  We help the school and community partner with the process of partnership building, leaving the contents of the partnership up to the partners themselves.   

Leadership United partnerships focus not just on dollars, but on human capital, experiences for students, and in-kind contributions.  Each partnership addresses an academic goal identified by the school in its strategic academic plan, known as the School Comprehensive Improvement Plan, or SCIP for short. 

Support Our Schools has developed an extensive tool kit that serves as a process model for building school-community partnerships.  The tool kit functions much like a recipe.  Community members and principals can follow the tool kit much like one follows a recipe to bake a cake. 

The long term goal of Support Our Schools is to create a school community partnership for every school in the district.

Support Our Schools works with The Midway Chamber of Commerce to build partnerships between businesses and schools, and with the St. Paul Area Council of Churches to build partnerships between schools and church congregations. 

Current partnerships established or enhanced through Leadership United:

• Murray Junior High School – Western Bank
• Galtier Science/Mathematics Technology Magnet School —Minnesota Wire and Cable
• Bruce Vento Elementary School—NdCAD
• Humboldt Junior and Senior High Schools—Ecloab
• Maxfield Magnet School – American Bank
• Webster Magnet School – Unity Church
• Phalen Elementary School
• Homecroft Elmentary School
• St. Anthony Park Elementary School – St. Anthony Park Methodist Church
• Murray Junior High School—St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church
• More partnerships to come