Community Outreach Making Partnerships at Sumner Schools

COMPASS is an acronym for Community Outreach Making Partnerships at Sumner Schools. In July 2004, COMPASS began as a program of a large Nashville-based nonprofit, PENCIL Foundation, but gained enough local support and program perspective to become an independent organization on July 1, 2005. Our main objective is to form lasting, authentic partnerships between Sumner County Public Schools and businesses, organizations, churches, and individuals. COMPASS is a vehicle for strengthening public schools by using all available community resources. Our mission is to promote student success by developing partnerships between the business community and Sumner County Schools. Partners are businesses, organizations, churches and individuals giving their time, money and/or resources. Partners donate money, coupons as incentives, used computers, a field trip opportunity, etc. Many are classroom readers, tutors, mentors, spelling bee judges and even hallway painters. We work closely with the Board of Education to assure that our objectives are aligned with those of the school system. The program is to compliment and augment the system by involving the private sector.