The Stark County P-16 Compact, was organized in Spring 2001 under the auspices of the Stark Education Partnership, Canton, Ohio. The program was a recipient of $5,000 planning grant in August 2001. The funding was combined with local funding and used to publish a white paper and convene a broad-based Compact meeting in October 2002. At that meeting, state and federal representatives spoke and all local school districts, colleges, foundations and business confirmed their support for this initiative with specific action plans that are being monitored with monthly Compact committee meetings. In January 2003, the program received a start-up grant through the Governor’s Access Initiative for $30,000.

A collaborative effort of 17 school districts, the Stark Educational Service Center, the Stark Education Partnership, 7 colleges, local foundations and local businessmen, the mission of the Stark County P-16 Compact is to increase the high school graduation and the college going rates in Stark County.

Program Goals and Objectives

1. To increase the high school graduation rates in Stark County.
2. To increase the college going rate in Stark County.
3. To add college access advisors to the urban center high schools (Alliance, Canton and Massillon) to assist students with school selection, scholarships, financial aid.
4. To help all Stark County students with ACT/SAT preparation and college essay writing with a locally designed programs distributed on CD ROM to all students and teachers.
5. To help all Stark County students with funding through scholarship/loan applications by developing a local scholarship/loan website that includes all available scholarships/loans from local foundations, local business, local colleges, and local school districts.

Staff
Dr. Adrienne O’Neill, Dr. Joseph Rochford, Mrs. Adele Gelb, and Mrs. Kim Ross, from the Stark Education Partnership, serve as staff support for the Stark County P-16 Compact. Following collaborative job description development, Mrs. Gelb will hire and oversee the part-time college access advisors for each of the participating urban center high schools. The training for the college access advisors will be done with school district and Stark Educational Service Center participation using a locally developed design. Mrs. Ross is working with the Stark Educational Service Center and the Stark Community Foundation to design the local scholarship website with a universally accepted online application procedure.

Timeline of Program Implementation
College Access advisors in the urban center high schools, college essay and SAT/ACT preparation modules on CD ROM, and the local scholarship/loan website will all be active during the 2003-2004 school year. The Compact Committee will continue to meet monthly with a updated white paper publication expected for September 2003 and a broad-based convening in October 2003.

For more information contact:

Dr. Adrienne O'Neill
Director
Stark County P-16 Compact
Stark Education Partnership
220 Market Ave., S., Ste. 350
Canton, OH 44702-2171

Phone: 330-452-0829
Fax: 330-452-2009
E-Mail: aoneill@edpartner.org
Website: www.edpartner.org

College Access Program Map