CISNTblog

Each month CISNT produces a “balanced business scorecard” report for our management team to guide the organization by and for our board of directors to oversee the business that is Communities In Schools of North Texas.  The scorecard contains key metrics about our customers (the at-risk students we serve and the volunteers who generously donate time to us), metrics about our financials (cash flow, revenue vs. expenses, budget vs. actuals, etc.), metrics about the “internal” activities that drive our organization (website hits, status of our top 10 partnerships, etc.) and metrics on “learning and growth” (our public relations activities, staff retention, professional development, etc.).  It is a great monthly “check of the gauges” in the airplane that is CISNT (which by the way never lands!) that reminds us of our progress towards the big rocks, our strategic goals…

 Today, as I went through the routine of entering results into the scorecard.  Our e-mentoring program caught my eye.  In October, CISNT mentors and CISNT students exchanged 939 e-mentoring messages. WOW!  That’s 939 times an at-risk student used technology to communicate.  939 times a mentor connected with an at-risk student, but never left their work space or lost productivity or just grabbed 10 minutes between meetings or college classes. 

What’s really cool is that the majority of those 939 messages came from General Electric staff in Lewisville, Irving and Addison and connected with 5th grade students at Hedrick ES providing help with their social studies project.  Did you know that the lowest elevation point in the U.S. is below sea level and it is at Death Valley in California?  Well, it is… 

Why do we take CISNT kids to a UNT basketball game instead of a Dallas Maverick’s game?  It’s not that we aren’t Mavs Fans For Life!  We love the Mavs!

We take students who are at-risk of failing in school to the University of North Texas coliseum to see Mean Green basketball game because of the awesome experience of taking CISNT students to a university campus.  They think we’re watching basketball - in reality, we’re introducing them to a life changing experience called college…

 Later this year, CISNT will once again take hundreds of our students to Denton to see a UNT basketball game.  Many of our mentors, including our ePals from General Electric, will be joining us.  We need help paying for buses to transport our students.  Can you help?  For less than the cost of 2 floor tickets at The American Airlines Center, nachos and a coke, you can provide a bus for 50 kids to the game!