By Fritz Edelstein
March 29, 2004

Nashville's Metro Mayor Bill Purcell along with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools has launched a new initiative — The Alignment Project — to "align" business and community services with the school system.

The initiative aims to help businesses and agencies to work together with preschool and school-aged children to meet the education standards adopted by the Nashville school system in an effort to discover new ways to support students. The "Alignment Project" enables those organizations and agencies that provide support type services to children to be on the same page as the school system.

The "Alignment Team" is composed of the mayor, the school superintendent, leaders of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, business community, social service agencies, and non-profit organizations. Through this diverse partnership, there is a better understanding of how best to address the needs of students and schools where there can be a shared and aligned strategy from across the community.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors will obtain more details on this initiative and others, because of its importance to linking traditional mayoral city agency responsibilities with the education of children by the school system. This is an integral step in coordinating services to all children and especially those with the greatest needs.