Community schools empower people


  • July 29, 2015
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   education

Holly Magee, Principal, Tim Putman and Leigh Ann South at C. A. Weis Elementary School Friday, July 24, 2015. (Michael Spooneybarger/ Studer Community Institute)

In the community school model, public schools, nonprofit organizations and local businesses come together to provide a broad range of programs and services to students and families in support of comprehensive child and community development.

Through grants from the University of Central Florida and sponsorship from the Children’s Home Society, C.A. Weis Elementary School is on the cusp of becoming Pensacola’s first Community School.

Tim Putman, director of the Children’s Home Society, believes they found the right person as the Community School director.

Leigh Ann South moved from Escambia County schools director of parent and community Involvement to become the Community School director.

South previously worked as parent/community liaison at Oakcrest Elementary and as teacher. She believes each position has prepared her to push the community school in the right direction.

“Even though it is different organization we’re all working together, and we all feel like we are doing something great and that’s what will make the difference,” South said. “This is something we have to do for our kids and for our families and our county.”

South and Putman in June joined Weis Principal Holly Magee on a visit to New York City’s P.S. 5 Ellen Lurie Elementary and Salone Urena de Herniquez Middle schools.

The whirlwind two-day trip was part of a fact-finding mission to see how schools can become the center around which the community revolves.

In partnership with the Children's Aid Society, the two public schools in New York are among the first in the U.S. to develop the community school model.

Weis will be at the helm when the Pensacola school sets sail as a full-fledged community school in coming months. It’s an empowering  to be a part of a team that is building a foundation for a new strategy that has unlimited possibilities, Magee said.

“I was hoping to learn a little bit about how everything fit together from the school’s perspective, but it was truly a life-changing trip for me,” said Magee. “Seeing the schools and the potential to change a community was amazing.”

Empowering the community

Hiring a director and visiting a community school was part of a $75,000 grant from the University of Central Florida, along with $25,000 fro the Escambia County School District and the Children’s Home Society to help facilitate the opening of a school in Pensacola.

Weis Elementary also is in line to receive a $225,000, UCF implementation grant, with a match of $75,000 in local funding, to move forward with the project.

“The biggest thing we came away with is that it’s a strategy, not a program, and things look different from where you are,” South said. “You have to find out what the needs are in your community to find out what the school will look like.”

In New York students, parents and citizens in a community have access to primary health care, dental care, free meals, food pantry, job-assistance programs, tutoring, mentoring and a host of additional support and programs.

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The schools opened early each weekday, on Saturdays and holidays. The doors stayed opened into the night, sometimes as late as 11 p.m.

Parents showed up at the school early and often. The parent room was their hub. Afterschool activities are the crux of their mission.

“They took some much pride in themselves and the schools and that trickled down to the students and teachers,” Magee said.

Ideally, a community school increases academic achievement and student attendance, empower students, families and schools to succeed and enrich lives through community involvement, parental engagement and economic development.

To improve a school and its community, a quality academic program is necessary, but it is not always sufficient.

The Pensacola team witnessed turnaround strategies to connect the schools with agencies that provided an array of services and support.

The city also provided teacher training and principal mentoring, a curriculum review, data-tracking systems, and extra hours of learning and life-skill training time each day.

In return, the schools had to show that students have made academic gains within three years or they could faced leadership changes or even closure.

A model for success

A community school is a strategy for organizing the resources of the community around student success through partnerships between the school and other community groups, agencies and businesses.

At a community school the focus is on academics, services, supports and opportunities that typically leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.

In 1992, The Children’s Aid Society joined in a partnership with the New York City Department of Education in 16 community schools, located in Washington Heights, Harlem, the South Bronx and Staten Island.

The  Salomé Ureña Middle Academies were among the first to open as a full-service community school.Of 255 students, 92 percent are Latino, and 74 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

The P.S. 5 Ellen Lurie School opened in 1993, and now serves 681 students, of which 93 percent are Latino and 84 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch prices.

The partnership provides afterschool, Saturday, holiday and summer programs; school-based medical, dental, mental Health and preventive services; emergency relief through The New York Times Neediest Fund; 0-to-4 education that includes Head Start, Early Head Start and programs for pregnant women; parent, family/community engagement and development opportunities (such as family resource room, vocational and educational trainings, adult education, advocacy and leadership opportunities).

The community schools produce better student and teacher attendance, increased grade retention, more appropriate referrals to special education services, improved test scores and higher parent involvement than similar schools. The schools have won national and international recognition, as well as numerous awards.

Since community schools took root in New York City in the 1990s they have made great strides to remove barriers — from poverty to a lack of healthcare — that can interfere with a child’s achievement in school.

The model has caught hold in districts across the country, including Orange County, where Evans High School became Florida’s first community school.

In Pensacola, members of the village who will be partners in the community school strategy so far include Children’s Home Society, the University of West Florida, Sacred Heart Hospital, Escambia Community Clinics and Escambia County School District Title I representatives.

The planning phase for the community school effort could take about a year, but they hope to be up and running sooner, Putman said. He estimates it will cost between $300,000 to $500,000 a year to operate the Community School.

Weis Elementary School and the neighborhood surrounding is teeming for the benefits a community school can bring.

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Clapboard houses, rickety trailers and shade-tree auto repair shops make up the majority of residents and businesses in the neighborhood between W Street and Pace Boulevard near Catholic High School.

In the school’s ZIP code — 32505 — the median income of the nearly 29,000 residents is $28,489. The Pensacola average is $39,734, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

All of the of nearly 500 pupils qualify for free- and reduced-price meals.

In 2014, Weis ranked worse than more than 97 percent of elementary schools in Florida and ranked 30th among 33 elementary schools in the district.

Only 14 percent of third-graders last year showed proficiency in math, and 14 percent in reading.

By making schools like Weis the hubs of their communities and engaging a range of partners with expertise and resources, community schools have shown to support students’ needs and boost their learning.

Teachers find rewarding benefits from community schools, because they no longer have to deal with so many poverty-related impediments to learning. As a result, teacher turnover rates dramatically decreased as the community school took the litany of services that teachers provided beyond the classroom.

“One of the things they said in New York is that teachers want to teach at the school because they don’t have to be the teacher and counselor,” South said. “It is a refreshing position to have because they get to teach now.”

Making it work

Research and real-life experience show that young people need a wide range of opportunities and supports to succeed.

At their best, community schools recognize that students who are hungry, can’t see the blackboard, or are missing school regularly face critical obstacles to learning in the classroom.

By providing an extra meal, connecting a parent to job training, or enrolling a student in an afterschool program, they can lower barriers to learning and help kids succeed.

“In the neighborhood it is an engrained part of the community, and they know what services are at the school,” South said. That’s what got me so excited.

The Weis team shared its enthusiasm last week in a meeting with teachers last week. They talked about the community school concept, what it could look like in Pensacola and how it can enhance education and improve the surrounding the community.

After a retreat this week to gather more information, the school leaders will take a survey to gauge interest and involvement and find out more what people are looking for in a community school.

“We will be talking to all kids of folks, some public, some private to help us gather information and resources and do it right,” Putman said. “It really depends on what the needs of the community are.”

Community schools are a response to societal problems related to dysfunctional families, poverty and health issues.

“It’s out of the box, and that’s what is so exciting about it as we look at different opportunities and things we might can actually do,” South said. “I just feel very privileged to be a part of it.”

Putman said community schools are needed because all children regardless of their economic, racial or family circumstances deserve access the array of opportunities that more prosperous families provide their children.

“Our community deserves the best we can do for it, and these children deserve the best,” Putman said. “We’re not shooting for the minimum, and we’re in this to work for the long haul.”

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