History & Mission
Community Partnership School is an independently operating PAIS accredited school that provides a well-rounded, affordable education while fostering a supportive network among students, school, family, and community. This partnership prepares our graduates to flourish in some of the highest performing middle schools and high schools in the region — academically, socially, and emotionally.
Community Partnership School was founded in 2006 through a philosophical partnership between Germantown Academy and Project H.O.M.E. to attend to the educational needs of children from an underserved North Central Philadelphia neighborhood characterized by high rates of poverty and low rates of graduation.
We are a Pre-Kindergarten through 5th Grade school who advances educational equity in close collaboration with families and the wider community by providing a high-quality, identity-affirming education that builds a foundation for lifelong success.
Our Mission
Our Vision
A world where all children have the same access to a high-quality education.
Our Values
Curiosity
We desire to know more about our community and apply practices that cultivate growth and well-being among community members. We foster opportunities for exploration and innovation. We strive to maximize our potential.
Courage
We focus resources to achieve our mission and vision. We take a disciplined approach to executing our approach and applying our values. We learn from our successes and failures.
Compassion
We assume good intentions from our colleagues, caregivers, and students, and we engage each other in thoughtful ways. We seek to position each other for optimal engagement and performance. We value diverse experiences and perspectives in all aspects of our operation.
CPS Strategic Plan
& Theory of Change
2024-2027 Strategic Plan
CPS: Where Children are Seen, Heard, and Known
Since 2006, Community Partnership School has refined an early childhood/elementary program that empowers children with the tools to make good on their dreams. Schools, of course, are places where teaching and learning happen, and that teaching and learning is more impactful, now and over the long haul, when we establish a culture that says "I see you, I hear you, I care about and believe in you." That’s the kind of community we aspire to sustain at CPS and this Plan frames our ongoing work at making it so.
In the summer of 2023, the School embarked on a process to clarify our strategy for ensuring continued mission fidelity and impact well into the future. Along with the completion of a Strategic Plan in the summer of 2024, we generated a report that reiterates CPS’ core purpose, overviews the steps taken in completing the process, and frames how we will allocate and augment our resources to realize our strategic goals moving forward. (See the overview of this strategic plan below)
Many thanks to our Board of Trustees, Faculty and Staff, Parents and Guardians, and various partners and friends for their significant contributions to this work. The goals, recommendations, and action steps highlighted here represent the collective work of many committed community members. This document summarizes our collective vision, and we're excited to realize the vision with you over the next few years and beyond.
Eric Jones, Head of School
Amy Connelly, Chair, Board of Trustees
September 2024
Overview
The CPS Leadership Team engaged in a robust strategic planning process during the 2023-2024 school year that surfaced two strategic priorities: improved financial sustainability and market positioning.
Key Recommendations and Goals
Ensure long-term financial stability and viability with a clear definition of expectations and through a mix of revenue generating and investment strategies
Craft and actively promote a distinct brand and brand identity with an updated Theory of Change to strategically position CPS in the Philadelphia education market
Short Term Goals
Long Term Strategies
Theory of Change
Community Partnership School’s Theory of Change maps out our mission and the core beliefs informing our reason for being, the activities and resources we bring to bear to carry out our mission, and the outcomes and long-term impact we seek to realize as a result. It serves as a framework for planning and evaluating, helping ensure missions relevance and accountability, from the boardroom to the classroom in all we do.
Equity & Inclusion at CPS
At Community Partnership School, a core part of our identity is manifest in our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of School life. From the boardroom to the classroom, internally and externally, these principles inform all we do. We readily acknowledge the on-going impact of historical prejudice, discrimination and exclusion, both institutional and interpersonal, on our students and families, faculty and Board. This realization informs our central reason for being, as defined by our mission, which is to provide access to educational opportunity to low-income children.
As an equal opportunity care provider we have appropriated practices informed by diversity, equity and inclusion school-wide, and we are conscious of the ways various social identifiers, including age, education attainment, ethnicity, gender, nationality, physical and learning differences, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status, inform our community’s reality and contribute to each community member’s full identity. We seek to actively nurture and sustain an environment where the full personhood of each member of our community is valued, inevitable disagreements across lines of difference are acknowledged, and initiatives that promote cultural literacy and understanding are cultivated community-wide.
Therefore, we commit to the National Association of Independent Schools Principles of Good Practice for Equity and Inclusion which can be found on the NAIS website.
