While in a Wednesday morning Education and Workforce Development Roundtable, Mesa

educators, business leaders and city council members endorsed a Community Literacy Initiative
to ensure children are prepared for kindergarten.

Members of Mesa Public Schools proposed three strategic focus areas to be discussed during the
meeting including early learning through high school, post-secondary, and workforce
development.

Members of Mesa City Council were informed of the highest priorities that will strengthen and
align Mesa education and workforce development, particularly for the Mesa K-Ready Program.

Mesa K-Ready is a family engagement program that uses a combination of academic lessons, fun
learning activities, and family support to help Mesa parents and their 3- and 4-year-olds prepare
for kindergarten, according to the Mesa K-Ready website.

The parents are in the classroom learning alongside their children on how to be their children's
best teachers.

“We also want to empower parents to be self-sufficient,” said Jacqueline Thatcher, the Family
and Community Engagement Supervisor of Mesa Public Schools, “It's about investigated
learning, nurturing math skill development, promoting language and literacy, and building social
and emotional foundations.”

The goal of Mesa K-Ready is to increase family and parent confidence not only in educating
their children and advocating for them but also in becoming self-sufficient and productive
citizens.

The program plans to collaborate with its partners in Queen Creek and Gilbert who have also
served the City of Mesa and Mesa Public School students to extend their program and replicate it
in other school districts said, Thatcher.

The collaboration relies heavily on grant funding provided by the John Whiteman Foundation
and Mesa Public Schools to keep the program running. Still, with a yearly operating budget of
around 130,000 dollars, the program draws concerns.

Thatcher emphasized that a lack of partnerships and funding would require the program to limit
the number of students based on the inability to hire additional teachers.

“We certainly have a need for our adults to continue to provide resources while connecting them
to workforce opportunities, and with this program, we have a specific group of people who have
been proactive in pursuing educational opportunities for their kids,” said the Education and
Workforce Administrator of Mesa, Sarah Tolar.

Along with providing resources for the parents and the families by making sure that they
understand how they can get involved in partnering in their child's education, the Mesa K-Ready
Program provides access to unlimited diversity strategies for students.

According to the Arizona Department of Education, research shows that children entering
kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed in school rarely read proficiently by third
grade.

Tolar said that the Mesa K-Ready program sees a need to partner with the Roundtable to provide
strategic planning and alignment to help address literacy proficiency rates citywide and
statewide.

“Literacy is absolutely crucial to any kind of workforce development. To me, this one jumps out
big time,” Councilmember Julie Spilsbury of Mesa City Council said, “This is where it becomes
really impactful, where powerful partnerships come in.”

The Roundtable will move forward with its three approved projects, the Mesa K-Ready, Mesa
College Promise and Workforce Alignment in its next meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022,
from 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM at the Mesa Fire & Medical Admin Building - Coyote Room.

This meeting will be open to the public to attend and observe the Education and Workforce
Development Roundtable.
Photo Captions:

The meeting was held on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at the Mesa Fire & Medical Admin Building -
Coyote Room.

The Roundtable gathered with experts in education, business leaders, nonprofit organizations,
and Mesa residents to discuss Mesa’s education and workforce development goals.