Innovative Schools

The Center for Collaboration and the Future of Schooling (CCFS) is a 501(C)(3) public charity committed to helping improve learning opportunities for all children — especially those of low-income and disenfranchised groups — so that they are equipped to pursue their dreams and contribute to our global society.

Based in Independence, Ohio, CCFS works with government agencies, foundations, school districts, community organizations, and other interested parties to construct and communicate practical policy, strategies, and frameworks for creating and supporting community-driven improvements in schooling.

Over the past few years, CCFS has been developing the Ensemble experience, a professional development and training experience for K-12 educators working with diverse student populations in a variety of school settings. Ensemble is rooted in the science of cultural competency, which increases the capacity of educators to learn, work, and teach effectively across cultures.

CCFS also works with international agencies and foreign governments, including the United States Agency for International Development and the United Kingdom Department of International Development.

Instructional Support Team

Martha Burke

Martha Burke is a Music and Fine Arts Specialist, and is currently in her third year working for the University of Delaware supervising music student teachers in vocal and general music for elementary and middle school schools. She also teaches kindergarten music part-time at the Tatnall Preschool.

Martha retired from the Christina School District in 2007 after 37 years teaching elementary general music, grades K – 6. Her most recently position with the Christina School District was serving as a new teacher mentor. She worked extensively with Dr. Suzanne Burton from the University of Delaware with student teachers, practicum methods students, Project Music, and forming a partnership between Marshall Elementary School, the University of Delaware and the Delaware Symphony. She also did extensive work with the Gordon Institute of Music Learning Theory as it applied to the classroom.

Martha’s most recent accomplishment was receiving the 2008 Jessie Ball DuPont Educator of the Year Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of music. This award is sponsored by the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Martha was also the 1989 Ramon C. Cobbs Teacher of the Year and the 1989 Christina School District Teacher of the Year.

Christopher Celfo

Christopher Celfo is a music teacher at Glasgow High School, where he teaches chorus, piano, and guitar, and directs the school Drama program. He is currently in his 15^th year with the Christina School District. In addition to teaching in the classroom, he teaches private lessons, and performs in a variety of musical ensembles in the area.

Christopher received his B.S. in Music Education from West Chester University, and his Masters of Instruction from the University of Delaware. Within his district, he has developed a curriculum for Guitar and Piano class, and has collaborated with his colleagues to solidify the current district music curriculum.

Amelia Hutchinson

Amelia (Minnie) Hutchison retired as full-time art educator and Christina School District Art Chairperson in 2008 after 30 years of teaching. She continues to teach art as Adjunct Professor at Wilmington University. Before retiring Minnie worked at the local, state and national levels to improve art instruction and to promote its value. Her philosophy is: Art instruction is an essential component of effective teaching if the needs of all children are to be met. Some of her accomplishments include:

Presenter – National Marine Educators’ Conference How to teach Marine Biology to Elementary Students Using Art as The Basis.
Collaborated with Vicki Spandel, the developer of “The Six Traits of Writing” on her new book, Creating Young Writers.
Presenter at National Re:Learning Conference in Chicago
Delaware’s 2006 Art educator of the Year
Member of the Delaware’s Curriculum Design Team
Member of the Delaware’s Arts Advisory Council
Assisted in organizing Delaware's March For the Arts in Education and created CDs of art work and music by Delaware's students to present to state legislators in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Alvin Pope

Alvin Pope is an elementary general music instructor serving in his tenth year with the Christina School District. He also serves as the coordinator for the district’s Continuing Education Program and collaborates with fellow educators to enhance music curricula.

Prior to his work in the classroom, Alvin worked as a professional musician performing alongside of many established artists. He continues as a composer and recording artist of various music genres and works to promote musical opportunities for the classroom with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s Education Committee.

Alvin received a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from West Chester University, a Masters in Education (School Leadership) from Wilmington University and was selected as Teacher of the Year for Leasure Elementary in 2004. Alvin continues to perform and collaborate with various fellow educators and artists. Earlier this year Alvin had the honor to perform for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Quazonia Quarles

Quazonia Quarles is an elementary teacher in the Christina School District. Prior to teaching in Christina, Quazonia was a child care manager at the Greater Newark Girls Incorporated, and an early childhood trainer through Delaware First Again. She also taught in the early childhood sector.

As an educator, Quazonia continues to develop early childhood activities and lessons published in the The Giant Encyclopedia resource books by Gryphon House.

Quazonia is a graduate of University of Delaware and Delaware State University.

Board Training

Leland Leadership Group, LLC

After more than 20 years working in and for the non-profit sector as an administrator, planner, fundraiser, teacher, scholar, and consultant, Dr. Pamela Leland established The Leland Leadership Group in 2007 in order to help non-profit organizations build their organizational effectiveness. Services are available in areas of executive leadership and board governance, strategic planning, succession planning, organizational assessment, program evaluation, and process facilitation.

Pam’s experience as a consultant to non-profit organizations began shortly after college when she began training volunteers who worked in volunteer-led shelters for homeless men, women, and families in Atlanta, Ga. Since that time, she has worked with local, regional, and national organizations on a variety of issues — but with the underlying purpose of building capacity toward greater mission achievement.

Her consulting work is grounded in her experiences working in several non-profit organizations as an Executive Director, Interim Executive Director, Planner, and Fund-Raiser, as well as her public service work as a faculty member at the University of Delaware and Seton Hall University.

Her research on issues of accountability and charitable tax exemption has been published in academic and practitioner publications. Pam is widely known as an effective teacher and trainer, and was the Founder of ARNOVA’s Section on Teaching in the mid-1990s. She has also published in the areas of teaching, community-based research methods, and prejudice reduction.

Pam completed her Ph.D. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. She has a M.S. in Urban Studies from Georgia State University and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia.

R. Shirley Monastra

R. Shirley Monastra is a former public school teacher and elected urban school board member from New Jersey. In 1991 she moved to the District of Columbia, where her work for the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing focused on assessing the quality of education available for children residing in housing developments.

Subsequently, Ms. Monastra served as Interim Director of the D.C. Committee on Public Education (COPE) and successfully led its transformation into a free-standing non profit organization, the D.C. Public Charter School Resource Center, where she served as Executive Director until 1993. During her work at the Center with charter applicants and schools, the importance of the role of school governance in creating charter schools of excellence became apparent. As a result, her consulting practice is focused on ensuring that charter schools improve school performance through the creation of informed, organized, accountable Boards of Trustees.

Monastra believes a Board must operate within the context of achieving the school’s mission, while simultaneously supporting increased student achievement over time through their policies and actions. This practice demonstrates an understanding of the Board’s role and responsibility, and their commitment to becoming an effective Board of Trustees, individually and collectively. Her practice includes charter schools, private and non-profit organizations in the District and around the nation, with a commitment to charter schools and their promise of a quality education.

Continuous Improvement — CharterShield

Elevate Charter Schools — New York Charter Schools Association

Elevate Charter Schools is a member service from the New York Charter Schools Association.

The Elevate team delivers solutions to help schools consistently deliver performance results and stay in compliance. The Elevate team has solutions specifically designed for:

• Groups who are trying to open up new schools

• Established schools preparing for charter renewal

• School that just want some outside, objective insight

Elizabeth Pagano, the Director of Product Development and Learning for the New York Charter Schools Association, was formerly the Director of Data Analysis & Reporting and an Assessment Developer for School Performance New York, Inc.; Quality Assurance Coordinator for Measured Progress; and Research Associate for the New York State Attorney General's Bureau of Environmental Protection. She holds a M.S. in Ecological Economics, Values and Policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Marketing

Hollister Creative

Hollister Creative is a full-service creative firm providing expertise in marketing communications and excellence in the delivery of print and interactive marketing tools. Such tools might include a logo and related branding elements, a brochure or marketing kit, a website, and a print or email newsletter.

Clients range from schools and social-service organizations to corporations, foundations, cultural institutions, newspaper companies, and sports teams.

Hollister Creative offers the full range of services any organization might need to reach its marketing communications goals. Services include consulting, project management, graphic design, writing, editing, proofreading, photography, illustration, programming, and printing.

With multiple national awards for the design of marketing materials, Hollister is a top choice for schools seeking quality creative work. But it’s not the awards that keep clients coming back. Their loyalty is a result of Hollister’s focus on results, responsiveness to client needs, and reliability in getting projects done on time and on budget.

Facilities Design and Construction Project Management

The AXIS Group, Inc.

The AXIS Group, Inc. is a facility design and construction project management firm. Howard Smith, the company's President, has a degree in architecture and more than 30 years of diverse experience in facilities design and construction project management. In that time, he has been responsible for more than $75 million of successful owner-occupied commercial projects. His experience has been as a Project Architect working directly for clients and as a Project Manager for facility owners and their tenants.

For 15 years, Howard Smith worked in a facilities engineering group of the DuPont Company at the Wilmington corporate headquarters. He was a Project Manager for assigned projects early on, and later managed the same group providing project management services to all the DuPont Company’s businesses. Project types included general office upgrades, executive offices, conference facilities, building façade rehabilitation, computer rooms installations, and training facilities. The more than 200 projects completed during this time covered more than 1.5 million square feet of space and ranged in costs from tens of thousands of dollars of minor facilities upgrades to a single major renovation project worth $12 million dollars. From 2005 through 2008, Howard was the owner's representative/project manager for half a dozen Christina School District renovation projects.

Budget Development and Business Services

Shelly Baker

Shelly Baker is a Senior Accounting Specialist with Innovative Schools, and has over 30 years experience working with the State of Delaware.

Shelly recently retired from Campus Community Charter School where she was the School Business Manager. Her primary duties included managing and processing all aspects of Human Resources, Payroll and Benefits in PHRST, processing all financial documents in DFMS, compiling data for budget preparation and adjustments, preparing financial reports for the Board of Directors, analyzing operations such as workflow and record keeping, identify problem areas, and developing and implementing procedures/systems for improved operations.

Prior to working at Campus Community, Shelly worked for the Office of Management and Budget as the PHRST School Functional Lead for Human Resources. In this role she determined school district needs, planned, developed and implemented programs and systems to meet them, and managed a number of professional and technical staff.

Shelly also worked at Capital School District for 13 years as an Employee Benefit Specialist and was responsible for all aspects of employee benefits for 850 employees. She acted as a liaison between administrators, employees, insurance companies and state departments.

Shelly also has experience with the Department of Finance as a DMFS implementer. In this role, she provided technical and administrative support, and coordinated and conducted training programs to ensure that appropriate agency officials were familiar with DFMS operations.

Tammy Morris

Tammy Morris is a Senior Accounting Specialist with Innovative Schools. In this role, she looks after all aspects of PHRST and DFMS, including payroll, human resources, benefits, and accounts payable. Tammy has more than 21 years of human-resource and financial experience, including 12 years with the State of Delaware.

Before joining Innovative Schools in 2008, Tammy worked for 12 years in education, and was responsible for human resources, benefits, payroll, and finance. She works closely with PHRST (Payroll/Human Resource Statewide Technology for the State of Delaware) as a liaison for the many regulations and changes that are constantly being updated. Ms. Morris will also be the coordinator for DFMS/Financials with the State of Delaware. Tammy has extensive training on PHRST, DFMS, and Mobius.

Elly Schmalz

Elly Schmalz is an Innovative Schools Human Resource Consultant. Her experience includes 38 years as an educator in the public school system. During this time, Elly served as a Middle School English Teacher and Department Chair (30 years), a District Administrative Assistant (three years), and as the New Teacher Induction and Mentoring Coordinator (five years).

For the past year, she has served as a Human Resources Consultant for the Christina School District. Elly has a B.A. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Human Growth Development.

Information Technology

Omnimaven

Omnimaven is a computer consulting and website design firm supporting the IT requirement of small companies and home users in the TriState area. Its staff is experienced in helping clients leverage technology to increase productivity and profitability.

Omnimaven offers a wide variety of affordable Internet services, such as website development, website hosting, e-commerce, and email services to give its clients a one-stop-shop atmosphere. Omnimaven has the expertise and the talent to develop, maintain, and manage Internet presence for companies, whether they are small businesses or in the Fortune 500.

Omnimaven has over 15 years of hands-on experience in software development, computer networking, and a variety of Internet environments. Some supports include:

• Active directory implementation and support

• Exchange implementation and support

• Firewall implementation and support

• Virtual Private Network implementation and support

• Network and infrastructure upgrades

• Company-wide software deployment and upgrades

• New office systems coordination

• Hardware installation and support

• Server setups and support

• Assistance with specialized applications (e.g., SQL Server, backup software, IIS, SharePoint)