×

Report: Community Schools Help Disadvantaged Students

 

Community schools are helping disadvantaged students bridge the gap, a new report from the New York State School Boards Association recently found.

For this year’s budget, Jamestown Public Schools District was projected to receive about $422,610 in Community Schools Funds after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget presentation last January. The funding is meant to connect schools with community organizations in a meaningful way for students and their families, as well as emphasize family engagement and provide supports for students and families.

“Community schools can help level the playing field for schools wrestling with a high level of student poverty and transiency,” said Timothy G. Kremer, NYSSBA executive director. “By working with regional partners to provide essential student services such as health care, mental health and academic enrichment, community schools can help foster increased student achievement.”

In the report, two examples of community schools are given, in which one Upstate New York school works regularly with local agencies to provide health care, on-site mental health services, nutrition information, self-esteem programs and career development services.

For the 2016-17 budget, state lawmakers designated $75 million in grants to turn struggling and persistently struggling schools into community schools. Yet, the report finds it is important to have multiple funding sources, such a school districts, the federal government, the state government, foundations, the city government and other sources, such as local businesses, community-based organizations, in-kind assistance and individual contributions.

The report concludes that it is important for community schools leadership to be shared, funding should come from multiple places, and seeking a “goodness of fit,” or effective and appropriate school and community partnerships is also key. The report also found that it takes around five years for “fundamental change in school reform” which also means community schools.

Tim Mains, Jamestown Public Schools District superintendent, said Fletcher Elementary School had previously been awarded a community school grant, while the current state funding has been used to expand the community schools components at Jamestown schools.

“We’re a big believer in community schools,” Mains said. “The concept behind community schools is basically bringing other agencies into partnership with the district. Even in schools where we don’t have a formal community schools arrangement, we’ve been doing that.”

He said the state community schools funding has been used to expand other partnerships that already existed, such as the partnership with the Chautauqua County Mental Health, the YMCA, the YWCA, and the Jamestown Community Learning Council.

“We took partnerships we’d already begun to make, and we used those community school dollars to expand access of those resources to more kids and more families in our schools,” Mains said.

Overall, he said he believes community schools programming is helpful to schools, while it might not be a fix-all solution.

“I believe it’s part of the solution,” Mains said. “I don’t believe community schools is a magic bullet or the only solution, but I have long believed that the work we have to do is so important and the challenges that we have are so great that the only way to really accomplish all that we want to do is to have help. We need help from our parents and families,and we need help from our community agencies to make sure we’re getting adequate attention and support for our students and families.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today