The Case for Community School Districts
December 01, 2022
Appears in December 2022: School Administrator.
A place-based strategy where schools partner with stakeholders, community agencies and local government to support the whole child and family
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift to distance learning, Oakland Unified School District leaders and staff sprang into action to ensure that their network of school-based health centers remained a reliable support for students and families.
The California district’s network of 16 health centers is a foundation of its now decade-old community school strategy. In Oakland, as in a growing number of school districts throughout the country, community schools are a districtwide approach “to serve the whole child and to address unacceptable disparities in education, health and life outcomes for our students,” says Curtiss Sarikey, the Oakland district’s chief of staff.
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Albuquerque’s Joint Powers Agreement for Community Schools
Because schools and school districts do not operate in a vacuum, some superintendents are partnering with local city and county leaders to support a network of community schools. This is what happened in Albuquerque, N.M., where the ABC Community School Partnership was created through a joint powers agreement in 2007.
The JPA, as it is known, includes the city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and Albuquerque Public Schools. The governing board also includes representatives from the University of New Mexico, the Hispano Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Central New Mexico, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation and the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
ABC is a quasi-governmental organization, meaning it is housed within the county government (with the executive director jointly funded by the city, county and school district) and follows all county rules. (ABC uses a foundation as a fiscal sponsor, dating back to a time before it was formally housed within the county.)
Formal Commitment
The ABC Community School Partnership currently provides approximately $6 million in funding, training, technical assistance and oversight for a network of 61 community schools in Albuquerque. The JPA structure brings together the school district, city and county to collaborate through a formal agreement and shared goals. This commitment makes it hard for any one entity to walk away in the event of leadership changes and keeps a balance of power among the three entities.
The JPA also brings six elected officials and three agency heads to the table with a commitment to developing community schools, allowing for coordinated decision making to remove barriers and realign funding in support of community schools in Bernalillo County.
The innovative work of ABC was documented in a 2019 research report. “Return on Investment of a Community School Coordinator: A Case Study” examined data from a five-year period that yielded information of value to current and future initiatives around the country. The research team tracked costs (salaries, professional development and stipends) and benefits (grant dollars, volunteer hours, professional time, in-kind programs and services, and physical donations of materials and supplies) accrued by a community school coordinator on behalf of an ABC elementary school during this period.
The bottom-line finding: For every dollar invested in the community school coordinator, the research team found a return of approximately $7 in net benefits.
— Anna Maier
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