ANNOUCING THE DEBUT OF SILICON VALLEY’S FIRST EVER “NCLB: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND 2.0 RE-AUTHORIZATION SUMMIT”

SAN JOSE, CA. - Will the Federal Government re-authorization of NCLB: No Child Left Behind arrive before the end of the presidential election? There are so many questions that are often left to gossip and mis-information about the United States Department of Education NCLB re-authorization proposal. Will the Federal Government keep its promise to aide failing school districts as they inch closer to making sure every child reaches the level of proficiency by the NCLB 2014 deadline? Will there be additional responsibilities with no additional funding and how will this affect California?  

Find out these questions and many others at Silicon Valley’s first-ever ground-breaking event, “NCLB: No Child Left Behind 2.0 Re-authorization?” Coordinated by My Project Youth Connect and co-sponsored by Encourage Tomorrow on Friday (Sept 30th) at ESUHSD. A special welcome presentation will be provided by NBC Bay Area News Reporter Damian Trujillo, keynote by Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Education in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education, Washington D.C., and a panel discussion moderated by Mercury News Education Writer, Sharon Noguchi. Additional media support by Clear Channel Radio.

This free community event begins at 8:30a.m. and the discussion ends at 12:30pm. Visit  My Project Youth Connect at www.mypyc.com for more information. Administrators, school board members, businesses, non-profits, community groups, unions, public education advocates, charter schools, and parents are invited.

The Federal Government will review plans for NCLB re-authorization, School Waivers, Race to the Top, and discuss how it will all affect California. 

"NCLB: 2.0 Re-Authorization will offer answers to educator’s questions during these tumultuous times of budget reductions and lay-off notices that are rampant in our school districts. We needed to coordinate something for the community to help put NCLB in perspective, said mypyc! President, David S. Hernandez. "It's our responsibility as citizens to know what we’re talking about when it comes to NCLB and be able to translate that information back to our communities.” According to a 2009 report by the California Faculty Association, California ranked very low in education. It ranks 49th out of 50 states.

For more information about this event visit www.mypyc.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-May 2011

 Town Hall Meeting at Berryessa Library from 6-8 pm on Thursday, May 12 to Highlight Local Impacts of California’s State of Emergencyon children and employees Joining Statewide Coalition of Education, Labor, and Community Groups in Series of Bold Actions May 9-13 to Pressure Lawmakers

 SAN JOSE – Educators, Education Support Professionals, parents, and community leaders from Berryessa Union School District/San Jose will gather at the Berryessa Library (3355 Noble Ave., San Jose, CA 95132) from 6-8 pm on Thursday, May 12, 2011 to publicize the local impacts of more than $18 billion in state budget education funding cuts during the last three years, and an additional $4 billion this year unless citizen’s rise up to tell the legislature to extend the temporary taxes Californian’s already pay to the state. Coordinated by My Project Youth Connect, CTAB, and CSEA. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-FEB 2011

BERRYESSA COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON “WILL THE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROPOSAL CRUSH EDUCATION?”

SAN JOSE, CA. - Will the governor’s budget proposal crush education? There are so many questions that are often left to gossip and misinformation about the governor’s budget proposal as it relates to education. Will the governor keep his promise to spare K-12 education?  What does he mean by the tax extension and is it guaranteed to help? Will there be additional responsibilities with no additional funding?  

Find out these questions and many others at an interactive discussion, “Will the governor’s budget proposal crush education?”Facilitated by Silicon Valley Neighborhoods for Public Education on Tuesday (Feb 15th) at the Berryessa Branch-San Jose Public Library.

For Immediate Release-Jan 2011

State of the City Honoree is upcoming...

My Project Youth Connect is selected as a local honoree for outstanding business community service and will be recognized at the San Jose Mayor's State of the City address on February 17th...  

Berryessa Sun/Mercury news

Grassroots effort gains momentum

by Shannon Barry Berryessa Sun/Mercury news

2010

A grassroots effort to close the achievement gap for at-risk students within the Berryessa Union School District is gaining momentum.

A six-month series of twice a month, free community education workshops kicked off Jan. 26 at the Berryessa Public Library. The series opened up with the first workshop focused on the topic, "Is your child falling behind in school?" and was followed Tuesday with "Do you know what your child is looking at online?"

"There are a lot of parents who either because of language or economic status normally wouldn't seek out this type of information on their own," said David Hernandez, president and chief executive officer of My Project Youth Connect, a provider of free community education services in Santa Clara County. "So I decided what would work well in my own work environment ... is giving the community an idea of what is going on outside their doors. ... They don't know the tons of resources that are happening in their area or even outside their area that can be effective in helping them move their kids along."

The workshops are co-organized by Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, City of San Jose Councilman Kansen Chu and the San Jose Library. As such each meeting has different presenters Hernandez has found by tapping into community sponsors like these and others. During the Internet safety meeting this week, Kendra Nunes and Daniel Ichige shared many of the things they have come up against as detectives with San Jose Police epartment's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Although the topic of the first meeting focused on the general idea of what to do when students bring home failing grades, in order to enable an interaction between district educators and parents, every meeting topic since has been decided based the highest-ranking concerns parents write down on a survey after each workshop.

Parent Rhonda Van Dyke has enthusiastically attended the first and second workshops. Having a daughter who is a senior in high school, she said the workshops are incredibly informative. Going to the first meeting, Van Dyke said, brought back memories. When her daughter went through fifth grade and one year in high school, she developed problems with a teacher at the schools. She went to the schools to bring the issues to the principals' attention. In both instances, Van Dyke said, she wasn't helped because the principal sided with the teachers.

"I was pulling my hair out ... and then I was like, is this all I can do is go to the principal?" she recalled.

But last week she discovered she could have gone up the ladder to get help. Knowing this now, Van Dyke is left with only one regret, that she didn't receive this information when her daughter was younger.

Even though she won't be able to benefit from the education meetings much longer, she is encouraging other parents in the community to attend.

"I think addressing the issues now will help (students) later on and make society better," she said.

Hernandez said workshop feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from parents like Van Dyke.

"What we're trying to do is possibly something the district could have done a while back in terms of community outreach," he said. "There isn't a lot of that going on in the district and it isn't privy just to them. There is usually a key clique of volunteers that seem to be doing all the work."

He says this from firsthand experience. With a sixth-grade daughter enrolled at Morrill Middle School and a second-grade son at Laneview Elementary School (where his wife works) Hernandez said he has been at the forefront of many Parent Teacher Associations and School Site Councils including former PTA president at Majestic Way Elementary School. Founding Project Youth Connect, he said, was just a way to help out the school district in a different capacity.

During the next several months, he is hoping to branch out the workshops to other school districts in able to further outreach to those people struggling. Next up are the East Side and Alum Rock areas and, once he finds an appropriate venue, Hernandez expects they will run simultaneously with the Berryessa meetings.

Hernandez said he has taken away new and valuable lessons by tapping into different resources and working with volunteers to prepare for launching the series.

In December he attended a large workshop about discipline to see how other organizations are structuring such events. By going he learned that some disciplinary roles have changed over the years and broadened his horizons about how to get his own children motivated.

"If I didn't talk to so many people about different ideas, I probably would be stuck providing one level of discipline that was probably inadequate," he said. "I really learned to communicate better with my kids ... and create a better environment, ultimately. It's a lot of work. Every day I work on it."

The workshops are held twice a month at the Berryessa Library Community Room, located at 3355 Noble Ave. in San Jose. For more information on these free community education workshops or sponsoring a workshop, visit www.mypyc.com or e-mail info@mypyc.com.