We continue our series of profiles on the community leaders who serve on the Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) board with a conversation with Mike Niccolini, Co-Chairman of the BCP Board and co-founder and president of MCM Capital, LLC. Mike’s reflections on his BCP service connect deeply to BCP’s 30th anniversary, the impact of BCP’s founding on public education in Baltimore and BCP’s vision for the future.
Q: How did you learn about BCP and begin your board tenure?
My business partner and lifelong friend, David Holder was a member of the BCP board. He tragically passed away at 35 years old from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008. George Hess, who is the founding BCP Board Chairman who knew David, called me and said, “It’s your turn to join the board.”
I remember telling George that I didn’t know anything about education, that I’m a finance guy and didn’t have time. And he said, “Great. The first meeting’s on Thursday.” So I joined in 2008 and am still here.
Q: As BCP celebrates 30 years since its founding in Baltimore, why is the BCP mission and approach so unique and also so needed right now?
BCP is unique in that we are a neighborhood charter organization. Other charter schools are lottery based. We are neighborhood charter conversion schools, which means that when we take over a school, we only join a community when we’re asked to join. And we are open to any child who lives in that zone.
We have three pillars of our value proposition that make us different:
- Academic achievement. BCP started as essentially a think tank from an Abell Foundation grant in 1996 to develop a curriculum that could help all kids in Baltimore City achieve. Our founder, Dr. Muriel Berkeley, used the grant to research the best curriculum to more effectively help kids read. That program was the research-based Direct Instruction (DI), which BCP piloted with Baltimore City Public Schools. Over time, we evolved and became a charter operator and implemented a lot of our solutions in our own schools using the replicable DI program . DI also allows younger, newer teachers a roadmap of where they need to get kids for achievement. We are skilled at implementing a structured program that allows kids to read at grade level. We think we have a better mousetrap and we’ve been doing it for a long time and I think the results speak for themselves.
- Financial stability. BCP as the operator works in conjunction with and supports our principals to run fiscally responsible schools. We help with budgeting, mass purchasing power amongst our schools, and with grants and fundraising.
- School culture. Our schools operate in challenging neighborhoods in Baltimore City. There are problems with poverty, joblessness, availability of homes, food security, and safety. Our schools become a beacon in these neighborhoods where this is a safe zone for these kids and families to leave behind problems that are much bigger than BCP could solve. We can’t do job creation and affordable housing and the other things that these neighborhoods need to thrive and be successful. But within our walls, within our campus, our kids are safe. And we implement a very specific program called Restorative Practices, which is nonviolent conflict resolution. We’re teaching kids life skills.
Q: What do you think is BCP’s greatest success over the past 30 years?
We have some schools that are the best in the city and in Maryland. We have some schools that are work in progress where we’ve been taking over more recently. But I think that our greatest achievement is our longevity and consistency. We’ve educated thousands and thousands of kids in Baltimore. We see the achievement when they go to high school, to college, and become productive members of their communities. If we can create citizens who have the tools to be successful and then also have the heart to come back and give back in the way that they were helped, then we’ve succeeded.
Q: What’s your vision for the next 30 years?
I would like to see us continue to grow so we can serve more kids, because we know our model works. We want to share best practices to see if we can have a greater impact. BCP introduced Restorative Practices to Maryland through City Springs Elementary / Middle School. It’s been adopted by Baltimore City and County schools and other districts across the state.
This year, we created a new position, Lead Attendance Monitor, to work across all BCP schools to address the issue of chronic absenteeism. Jayla Pope is working with our schools to increase our attendance rate. Chronic absenteeism is a massive national problem that exacerbates the other problem, which is achievement and progress. You can’t teach a kid who misses 40 days a year. There is no magic bullet. We’ve had several meetings and committee meetings on various incentives and initiatives for our schools. Jayla is examining our data and efforts this school year and will publish a white paper to help other systems. Our attendance initiatives are funded by the Abell Foundation, which funded our initial research 30 years ago. We will be sharing our findings to try and help all schools with this pervasive problem. So we are still researching. Still innovating. And still trying to help solve problems systemwide.
Q: What does your BCP service mean to you?
I’m humbled to be a part of this because our staff at BCP are the most talented, dedicated people I’ve ever met. Then you look at our Principals and their tenure, longevity, and public accolades. That’s part of continuity, too. We have very low turnover in our teachers because they have all bought into how we help kids and families. Our families care about their kids’ education, and that is immeasurable. Thanks, Mike, for your leadership, commitment, and vision!
About Mike Niccolini
Co-founder, MCM Capital and chairman of the Investment Committee
Entrepreneur for over twenty years with a focus on residential lending and distressed asset investing
Prior to founding MCM in 2007, founded Access Capital Mortgage, a successful mortgage lender that was sold to Presidential Bank FSB in 2008
Also founded Greenleaf Title and Escrow in 2001 and served as Senior Counsel at Microstrategy, Inc.
JD, University of Michigan Law School, BA, Cornell University