Welcome to the Event Resource Page for
2023-2024 Community Schools
Sustainability Series
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PRESENTER BIOS
Jorge Blau
Client Engagement Associate, Children’s Aid National Center For Community Schools
Twitter: @natcenterforcs
Jorge Blau is a Client Engagement Associate at the National Center for Community Schools (NCCS) at Children’s Aid in New York City. He provides training and technical assistance on the community school strategy to a range of partners. Before joining NCCS, he served as the Community School Director at CS 211 in the South Bronx, the most impoverished congressional district in the country, and coordinated efforts that reduced chronic absenteeism by 30 percentage points in 5 years.
Jorge started his tenure at Children’s Aid in the Washington Heights community – first as an Educational Coordinator at PS 5 and then as Program Director of the after-school program at the Salome Urefia Campus. He then played several roles in Bronx community schools, including Assistant Community School Director of CS 211 and at the Fairmont- Samara Campus before being named Community School Director at CS 211. He has significant experience and expertise in addressing chronic absenteeism and developing and implementing systemic approaches to resource coordination, behavioral & academic support, parent engagement, and mental health services.
Ron Cope
Deputy Director, Bronx Community Schools, Children’s Aid National Center for Community Schools
Twitter: @natcenterforcs
Ronald Cope II is the Deputy Director for the Bronx Community Schools at Children’s Aid. He currently supervises eight Community Schools in the heart of the South Bronx. Ronald works to engage the efforts of school communities, city agencies, community organizations, teachers, and families to create interactive and safe environments in which children can learn and grow. This work is done by effectively assessing students’ and families’ strengths and needs and working closely with school personnel and community partners to provide services that support students’ academic achievement and healthy development.
He previously was the Program Manager, where he led and supervised the implementation of Boston College’s City Connects student support model in Community Schools in Washington Heights, the Bronx, Harlem, and Staten Island. Prior to coming to Children’s Aid, Ronald led a diverse range of educational initiatives. Those initiatives include work with preschool education, community schools, parent education, teen school-based programming, and community and university partnerships. Ronald has devoted his time to mentoring high school and college-aged young men of color. He works to develop strong relationships grounded in trust, advocacy, and education. In each mentee, Ronald strives to instill the belief that, once one succeeds, it is his duty to identify and assist those who need him.
Ronald has a Masters in Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BA in Sociology from Hampton University.
Hortensia Hernandez
Client Engagement Associate, Children’s Aid National Center for Community Schools
Twitter: @natcenterforcs
Hortensia Hernandez (she/her) is a Client Engagement Associate at the Children’s Aid National Center for Community Schools based out of Idaho. Serving in various roles throughout her community school journey, Hortensia, as community school coordinator, helped start Caldwell School District’s very first community school in 2017. She then proceeded to lead her district’s community school expansion in 2021 as the district’s community school director. Hortensia also leveraged the community school strategy to effectively address chronic absence rates in her school. She built partnerships with local and national experts to rethink how attendance was addressed in her school community.
Coming from rural Idaho, Hortensia brings her systems expertise and practice-based experiences to help school communities across the nation implement their own community school strategy, achieve their goals, and build capacity. Hortensia has her Bachelor of Arts from The College of Idaho.
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