One City Schools’ Post

Please join me in welcoming Janel Vertz to One City Schools as our new Director of Finance. Janel brings a wealth of experience to our team having served as the Finance Director for School Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), and prior to that, the Chief Financial Officer of Wayland Academy boarding school in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and the Business Administrator for the Columbus (WI) School District. Janel earned her bachelor's degree in business management and marketing from Wartburg College in Iowa and her master's degree in school business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She is presently pursuing her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy, with an emphasis in K-12 education finance, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In Janel's spare time, she "can be found sitting next to my husband in the fan section cheering on our five teenagers...and serving on the board of a social justice playground movement that addresses access to play and green learning spaces." We are grateful to have Janel join our amazing team! Connect with her here on LinkedIn by clicking on her name above. Onward!

It was a honor to be here in California with longtime friends, colleagues, and supporters to attend the Celebration of Life of this amazing man, Don Shalvey. Please read the article below about him. I first met Don through Dr. Howard Fuller in 2001 and formed an immediate connection that led to numerous phone calls with me seeking his advice and counsel. I loved talking with the man. I was the young CEO of a national organization founded by Dr. Howard Fuller and was seeking out mentors. Don became one for me. I only wish I had taken him up on his offer to come ride horses with him in California many moons ago. When I stepped away from education briefly to work for Target Corporation and after that, lead the Urban League of Greater Madison, I fell out of touch with Don and many of my colleagues working on education reform nationally. I am happy I got to talk with Don in the year before he passed. He was still the same affable and inspiring source of inspiration and reflection who reminded me that the work we do is hard, but that our children need us to stay the course. During my last conversation with Don, he said, "They (children) cannot transform public education for themselves; they need us to do that for them. You have always been the right one for the job, Kaleem, and I am glad you found your way back to your mission. The work is hard and it will always be hard, but stay the course. The positive impact you are having on the lives of the children you educate and are advocating for, and the communities where they will live in the future, will be felt for generations." Thank you, Don. BTW, the woman who served me breakfast yesterday raved about the positive impact your schools have had on her granddaughter, who has taken college courses in high school and is applying to colleges this year. She said Aspire schools are the best in the Stockton area, and that she wished she could thank you in person. I am doing that for her here. God bless your beautiful spirit. You will never be forgotten. Onward. 🙂

Today, we welcomed our preschoolers and our new elementary and middle school scholars to the opening day of the 2024-25 school year. We also announced a major new groundbreaking partnership with Project Read AI of New York, NY, where One City Schools is serving as a host for the research and development of their new AI Reading Tutor. Click below to read the press release and learn more. Project Read AI already has nearly 100,000 users in 115 countries and is poised to revolutionize reading instruction and support for children (and adults). Note: Vivek Ramakrishnan, the Co-Founder and CEO of Project Read AI is also the co-founder and former Director of Finance and Operations for One City Schools. Many thanks to Ascendium Education Group for their support!

One City Parents and Friends! Please consider bringing your child out to Penn Park this Saturday, August 17th, when rising NBA star and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin native, Jalen Johnson and his new Foundation host their first Black Party and Basketball tournament. Details are below. It will be a very special day. We look forward to welcoming our native son, and future NBA All-Star, back home. Jalen closed out the 2024-25 NBA season as a starting Small Forward for the Atlanta Hawks. He was the fourth leading scorer (16.0 pts/game) and second leading rebounder (8.7 rebounds/game) for the Hawks. To learn more about Jalen, visit https://lnkd.in/gpMCRKpk. Special Note: Jalen started his high school basketball career playing for Sun Prairie High School, where as a sophomore in 2018, he and Marlon Ruffin (the son of One City's very own Ms. Marilyn Ruffin and now a professional basketball star playing in Europe), led Sun Prairie to its first-ever Wisconsin State Championship appearance. Jalen then transferred to Nicole High School near Milwaukee where he and his younger brother Kobe Johnson led their team to the state championship in 2019. When Jalen graduated, he was the #2 ranked high school basketball player at his position in the United States. Another Note: Kobe Johnson is currently a college men's basketball star playing the guard position for UCLA. Kobe and Jalen's older brother, Rod Johnson, Jr. played Division-1 basketball for Chattanooga. Their father Rod Johnson, Sr. and mother Stacey both played Division-1 basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.