Welcome to Community Schools, a monthly email newsletter highlighting public schools using the “community school” approach to empower parents, students, educators, and their communities—produced by In the Public Interest.
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How the “community school” approach advances racial justice. Tere Flores, a parent and community leader with PICO California, and Carl Pinkston, operations director for Black Parallel School Board, write: “While healthcare and other supports are critical, a service-oriented approach misses the larger opportunity to transform the whole school community and create a positive school culture through developing racially-just relationships among educators, staff, students, and families.”
Flores and Pinkston highlight Sacramento’s Luther Burbank High School, which is leveraging community relationships to create a safe campus without the use of school police. EdSource
“A remedy for public schools catches on.” Journalist Laura Impellizzeri outlines the growth of community schools nationwide, spotlighting Hoover Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Arrey Elementary in rural New Mexico. Capital & Main
Community schools highlight House hearing. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona promoted expansion of community schools during a recent hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee on Capitol Hill. The Education Department is requesting $468 million to add 800 community schools nationwide. K-12 Dive
Community schools are helping rural Arkansas. The NEA Foundation tells the story of Arkansas’s Batesville School District, which has embraced community schools to increase support and opportunities available to students in its schools. Chalkbeat
Newsom’s budget “reimagines” schools. CalMatters documents how California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new education budget would “reimagine” schools, including through the community school approach. CalMatters
Here’s more on California’s seven-year initiative to convert potentially thousands of schools into full-service, parent-focused community schools, from EdSource.
San Diego preps for community schools. An elementary school teacher and a community organizer provide an update on San Diego’s first cohort of community schools—Hancock Elementary, Mountain View School, Hoover High School, Millennial Tech Middle School and ALBA Community Day School—set to launch next year. The San Diego Union-Tribune
New York district to launch community schools. Upstate New York’s Holland Patent Central School District has joined the Connected Community Schools program, a regional initiative combining efforts of more than 200 businesses and community-based agencies. Daily Sentinel
Finally, some bad news…
New York City’s community schools brace for cuts. Changes are coming to the way New York City funds the nonprofits that partner with the city’s community schools. Out of 145 community schools that are affected by the change, 93 are seeing an increase in funding, but 52 stand to see significant cuts. Chalkbeat
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages