Juan Carlos Galindo, a youth leader from PICO affiliate Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO) in Kansas City, MO, worries about what could happen when his 3-year old brother enters kindergarten in the Kansas City Missouri School District.
 
As a student in the district Juan Carlos often had to dodge fights and face illegal drug solicitations. He does not want his brother to face the same challenges.
 
"We must do our job to make sure that when my little brother and all his friends enter the city's school system that our schools are safe," Juan Carlos told Superintendent John Covington during a recent town hall meeting, organized by the Visitation Local Organizing Committee, a member congregation of CCO.
 
More than 350 people attended the town hall meeting which focused on safety, budget shortfalls and communication between the district and parents.
 
Superintendent Covington was so moved by the young man's testimony that he wrote an editorial about it for the district's e-newsletter.
 
"He (Juan Carlos)  made one of the most profound comments I have heard during my short tenure here," Covington wrote.  He added "The young man struck the perfect chord when he noted it will take a community-wide effort to ensure our students receive a quality education."

At the town hall meeting, Superintendent Covington agreed to doing a follow-up meeting with CCO leaders in six months around developing a safety strategy for both inside and outside of district schools, creating more transparency in the school budget, and incorporating a strong parent engagement strategy in the new strategic plan for the district. 

For more information on CCO, visit www.cco.org