John Garcia

John M. Garcia, principal
Galtier Magnet School, St. Paul

Connecting with your community and building sustainable partnerships has never been as important as it is today. As budgets shrink and fixed costs go up, many schools struggle to fund extra curricular activities once taken for granted. Many community businesses have a philanthropic component to their mission. One would be surprised to learn just how many opportunities are out there for schools.

As a former member of the corporate world, I learned that many organizations take an active role in partnering with schools, community programs, and other philanthropic ventures. Many of these companies are eager to support their community. Corporate support can come in many forms: financial support, such as a donation to your school; supplies for your students; volunteers to work with your students; or program sponsorship.

As principal, my goal is to cultivate one new sustainable business partner a year -- a partnership that is well developed, rich in opportunity, and ingrained in both organizations. During my first year as principal, I had the opportunity to partner with Old Country Buffet. OCB is a favorite among the students of Galtier. We were eager to recognize our students, so we developed the Galtier All-Star Award, given weekly to a student in every classroom for outstanding work or behavior. OCB. graciously donates free meal certificates for each of the Galtier All-Star winners.

In my second year, we were able to partner with Minnesota Wire & Cable (MWC), a St. Paul company. MWC has been instrumental in strengthening our magnet focus of science and technology. MWC and Galtier have created an “Ask an Engineer” blog, allowing students to ask questions and “talk” with the engineers. MWC also has agreed to support our Science and Technology Showcase for the 06-07 school year. In addition, MWC has donated funds to upgrade our playground equipment.

How do you find the right partner?

It is important to have a comprehensive understanding of your own program prior to finding a business partner. You must evaluate the needs of your building, know what resources you lack, and know what you may ask of a business partner. It also is important to know what a business partner wants from the relationship. A good way to do this is to compare business plans with your school goals. Many times there will be a match that will allow the partnership to take shape.

Another way to connect with your local business community is to draw a three-mile radius around your school. Are there businesses that may support your efforts in that three-mile radius? We found just such a partnership with the Bean Factory. The Bean Factory, a local coffee shop, allows us to hold art shows in its shop to help promote our student artwork. Proceeds from the art go to our newly formed PTA. The coffee shop is down the street from our school and our families enjoy stopping in for a cup of coffee and having a chance to view their young artists’ work.