By St. Petersburg (FL) Mayor Richard M. Baker
July 26, 2004

When I was called "the education mayor" by the local newspaper because I had pledged St. Petersburg's city resources to support its schools, I meant business. Actually, I saw the city as an advocate for the schools and recruiting corporate partners for the school system. In April, I announced that 56 St. Petersburg businesses signed on as partners for each public school in St. Petersburg as part of the Mayor's Mentors & More Initiative. Now, all 45 elementary, middle, and high schools, and four alternative schools have corporate partners who are working to improve the city's schools.

In a congratulatory letter from the Florida League of Cities, Executive Director Mike Sittig wrote, "This type of commitment on the part of a city to its public education system, through the recruitment of corporate partners, is a first among Florida cities. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been matched by any city in the United States."

Corporate partners offer various levels of support, ranging from donations of cash or equipment and technical support to volunteer hours for mentoring or school projects. These corporate partnerships are just one part of my overall strategy to support the St. Petersburg's schools through the initiative. To complement this initiative and take on a non'traditional mayoral role in education, I now chair Florida Governor Jed Bush's Mentoring Initiative.

In my first year in office, I was able to raise approximately $1 million for 300 Doorways Scholarships, which provide full college scholarships to students in need. In addition, Doorway Scholars are assigned mentors to help guide them and strengthen the connection between youth and the community. Not only have I served as a mentor for the past three years, but I created a city administrative policy that allows city workers to mentor during working hours. Also, $100,000 was raised to send 100 students through a technical education program.

In addition to mentoring, St. Petersburg offers tutoring opportunities through the city's recreation centers and libraries through a program called St. Pete Reads. As part of this initiative a new program was developed called the Caring Officers Present Storytime (COPS). City police officers read to children at city libraries and work on developing good, trusting relationships between police and youth.

A key component of the Mayor's Mentors & More is collaboration. For years St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Schools were at odds over the payment of regulatory fees for city permits. The two organizations worked together to resolve that dispute. Now, when a school is under construction, regulatory fees are paid to the city, which the city then uses to install new landscaping at that school.

This year, the city dedicated its first joint use playground. In order to reach this goal of having a playground within a half-mile of every child in St. Petersburg, the city needed new locations for playgrounds as well as ensuring that schools could benefit from new playground equipment. In the coming months, the city will install new playgrounds at five elementary schools to be used by students during the day and neighborhood children after school and on weekends. The city also has joint use agreements with schools for use of athletic fields, swimming pools and — now under construction — the largest city library on the grounds of St. Petersburg College.

Through Mayor's Mentors & More, the city is not only working to support the schools, but also the people who work in them. I recently announced a new housing incentive program, the A- Housing Program, that allows eligible school employees who work at a St. Petersburg school and buy a home in St. Petersburg to receive $14,000 in housing assistance (or $18,000 if the home is in Midtown, an area in the city's urban core targeted for redevelopment).

I realized that each of these initiatives and efforts was stepping out of the traditional mayoral role. We have really good schools in St. Petersburg, and great people working in them. The job of educating our youth, however, extends beyond the schools' walls and involves the entire community. In St. Petersburg, we-ve accepted the challenge.