001Good morning everyone. I am Jay Jones, chief of strategic partnerships for Montgomery Public Schools. Thank you all for being here today as we kick off a major and meaningful commitment with our incredible partners at the River Region United Way. The moment represents more than just a partnership. It's a shared pledge to uplift, support, and unite our community. Here at NPS, we believe in the power of collaboration. Our mission goes beyond the classroom. It's about standing alongside organizations like the United Way that are deeply rooted in strengthening families, promoting equity, and creating opportunities for all. We are proud to align ourselves with a partner that understands the importance of unity and community impact. And guess what? We're just getting started. Now, I'm honored to welcome our superintendent, Dr. Zakiusburg who will share Montgomery public schools pledge
002to the United Way and what this partnership means for our students, our families, and of course our future. Following Dr. Bird will hear from the CEO of River Region United Way, the passionate and dedicated Mrs. Jana Bailey, who will share her final thoughts on this powerful collaboration. Montgomery, let's continue to build something great. Good morning. Thank you, Miss Jones. Today is a proud moment for Montgomery Public Schools. As we stand beside the River Region United Way, we do so not only as a school district, but as a committed partner. At MPS, we understand that that the success of our students is deeply connected to the strength of our community. When families are supported, when basic needs are met, when resources are shared, that's when our children thrive. That's why partnerships like this matter so much.
003It is with that spirit that I'm proud to announce that Montgomery Public Schools will make a $25,000 pledge to the River Region United Way. That means we are calling on our 26,000 plus MPS family to help us reach this lofty fundraising goal. This investment reflects our belief in their mission and our shared vision for a stronger, healthier, and more unified Montgomery. But our commitment doesn't just stop with this financial pledge. We are committed to deepening this partnership through continued collaboration, volunteer engagement, and school-based initiative that supports our students and our families. From connecting families to the United Way services to empowering staff to get involved to amplifying the good work that's already taking place this region, across this region, MPS is all in. Together, we are building more than just classrooms. We are building a
004community. And I look forward to the many ways we'll continue to grow this work together. Thank you. And now I'll turn this part of the service over into the hands of Miss Bailey. >> I'm the only one with no notes. Um, thank you. I'm Jana Bailey and I'm the president CEO of the River Region United Way. This partnership with MPS is not just about raising funds, but it really is supporting the students and the family of MPS. We know that there are a lot of struggling families out there that are just surviving paycheck to paycheck and just going back to school can be an expense. So, we are not taking money away from you. I want to make that really clear. But when you donate to River Region United Way, you are giving back to
00527 community agency partners that are on the front lines every day that assist you and your children and your families throughout this community as they go into the school year. We are now focusing on Alice and I do want to mention that um ALS is asset limited income constraint employed. And so ALS is a name or an acronym that we are using to focus on those members especially those a lot of you in MPS are working moms and dads maybe single moms, single dads that are raising families. you all represent Alice where you are working really hard and you want those things for your families and we are trying to give a hand up to those. We are partnering not only with MPS, but with the city and the county, with businesses to get better
006transportation to get better um everything that has to do with schools and with our community, partnering more with affordable housing, emergency shelters, all of the things that we know, all of you know, especially at MPS, that goes on daily. We know that there are families that are two and three living in a two-bedroom apartment. We know that there are sometimes moms that are having to leave in the middle of the night and maybe there's not room in a domestic shelter, so they're sleeping in their cars or they're going to hotels at a temporary stop. So, we are really addressing that and we need more of input from MPS and more of the community involvement. We encourage everyone and MPS, we pass this on to y'all to tell who if you have a parent or a
007teacher even that comes to you that doesn't know where to turn, please ask them to call 211. 211 is our kind of community bank that takes in the phone calls and they do an assessment. They they find out exactly what's going on. Maybe someone's calling just because they didn't meet their power bill this month, but they find out that their children need uniforms to go to school this year. And so, it's really important to call 211. I'm going to close with this really positive um Alice that we are currently working with. This Alice has been at her employer for five years. Five years. We talked to her manager and she never misses a day unless one of her children are sick. How did we meet Alice? Well, she called us because sometimes by this time
008of the year when we're at the end of the fiscal year, a lot of our community partners are out of resources. So, United Way is kind of the last hope that they can get for emergency food and shelter. So, Alice called us and one of her children had been sick for three days. Three days may not seem a lot when you're a salaried employee or when maybe you have a spouse that works. For a single mom that's an hourly employee, three days equals 24 hours. That could be the difference as it was with her and making her rent in July. So, she called us because, as all of you know, it's time to buy backpacks and school supplies and school uniforms. So, we brought her in to find out exactly what else was happening with
009her. And we found out that she was spending $340 a month on Ubers to get to and from her job because the bus system in Montgomery was not taking her far enough to her job. So we reached out to the city and now we have a conversation going that we've got to expand bus transportation for people that want to work. That is important and we are proud that United Way is able to lead that charge and be a voice for that. The good news is Alice's oldest daughter, who is 14 years old, had an interest in music years ago. So, she taught herself on YouTube how to play the piano like this at the table, learning the keys, and her mother brought her bought her a keyboard a couple of years ago when she realized
010that maybe her child really did have this musical talent. her daughter got accepted into BTW this year because when she auditioned, it was her piano skills that got her in. So, just know that we are not separate from NPS. We are involved with MPS every single day and we want to be able to call on that school and say, "Listen, you've got a real gym here. Understand that this family may have a little bit of challenges, but we're getting Alice some driving lessons. Do you know what driving lessons can mean to a single mom? She told us that no one in her family had ever had a car learn to drive. Can you imagine the freedom, the independence, what that will do to change her life. So, we are here to lift up this community
011and it starts with MPS and our children. I am committed to this community. I'm committed even more so to MPS and the children we serve. So, I thank Dr. Bird. I thank all of you at MPS for stepping up this year and making that amazing pledge and I know that we can do that and even maybe go above the pledge. So, thank you very much and look forward to working with y'all. PS, um I also want to introduce I'm sorry I get a little emotional. um introduce our co-chairs this year for our 2025 campaign, Mark Bunning and Cassandra Crosby, who all of you know in this community. They are out and about and I don't know two people that better serve our community than these two. They are a lot of fun together and they
012are committed um even more so than I am. So, would love for y'all to come up and make a few remarks as well. want to say thank you MPS for this partnership. It's going to be great. Thank you guys so much. >> I echo those remarks. Also want to make sure that everybody understands that the dollars that are raised through United Way stay here in our community and that's vitally important because so many people are in need and United Way is here to assist just like Jana had mentioned earlier. So we're very excited. Help us reach the goal. At this time, we want to thank all of you all for coming out. And again, we are so excited about our fundraising goal. We're so excited to be partners with United Way. And at this time,
013we're going to close out this announcement. Thank you all so much. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]