What is a Community School?

1. Community Schools, Community Learning Center, Community Education Connection: Concepts to Practices for Your Programs Presented by: Dan Kuzlik, Katy Kramer & Julie Kosher

2. What is aCommunity School?

3. Community School…. “Individual community schools may offer different program elements or teaching styles, but the basic philosophy of the community school model is simple: Educational excellence, combined with needed human services, delivered through school, parent and community partnerships.” Building a Community School

4. Community Schools • In a community school, youth, families and community residents work as equal partners with schools and other community institutions to develop programs and services in five areas: • Quality education *Youth development • * Family support • * Family and community engagement • * Community Development

5. Education First Collaboration Partners not tenants A long term commitment Integrated Services High Level of Parent and Community Involvement Extended School Day A Focus on Community Strengths Key Ingredients of a Community School • Starting Fresh….not a band-aid for a program that’s broken and needs fixing… x

6. The array of specific services that individual community schools offer varies extensively by site. An analysis by the Coalition shows activity in the following areas. Too many schools have services in these various areas but no plan for how to integrate those services to achieve specific results. A coherent plan is essential for a successful community school. Community School

7. Comparing The Differences Time • Traditional School • 5 Days per week • 6-8 hours per day • 180 days per year • 50 minute classes • Very limited after school programs if any at all. • Community Schools • 7 Days per week • 10-12 hours per day • 220+ days per year • Extended blocks of time • Extensive after school program

8. Comparing The Differences Space • Community School • Education takes place throughout the community. • Facilities are used for a wide range of community activities. • Traditional School • Education takes place inside the four walls of the classroom. • Limited community access to facilities.

9. Comparing The Differences Family and Community Involvement • Traditional School • Involvement limited to parent participation in activities such as open houses and parent conferences. • Community School • A comprehensive process of family and community involvement in a wide range of programs and activities. • Partners in Education

10. Developing Community • “No child can escape his community. He may not like his parents, or the neighbors, or the ways of the world. . .The life of the community flows about him, foul or pure; he swims in it, drinks it, goes to sleep in it, and wakes to the new day to find it still about him. He belongs to it; it nourishes him, or starves him, or poisons him; it gives him the substance of his life. And in the long run, it takes its toll of him and all he is. Joseph K. Hart, 1913

11. Community Education is the vehicle to create a Community School! Community Education

12. “Community Education advocates and supports the creation of innovative programs and collaboration between all members of communities for the purposes of advancing community learning and sustainability.”

13. Community Education • DPI Recognized • Supported by State Association--Wisconsin Community Education Association • Model used by ~70 districts around the state. • Supported by National Community Education Association

14. Wisconsin Model of Community Education Wisconsin Model of Community Education Principles of Community Education • Lifelong Learning • Community Involvement *** • Efficient Use of Resources *** • Self-Determination*** • Self-Help • Leadership Development*** • Institutional Responsiveness • Integrated Delivery of Services *** • Decentralization

15. Life-long Learning • Implementing the principle that learning continues throughout life. • Providing formal and informal learning opportunities. • Offering programs and services for all community members, often in an intergenerational setting.

16. Community Involvement • Promoting a sense of civic responsibility. • Providing leadership opportunities for community members. • Including diverse populations in all aspects of community life. • Encouraging democratic procedures in local decision making.

17. Efficient Use of Resources • Using the community's physical, financial, and human resources to address the community's needs. • Reducing duplication of services by promoting collaborative effort.

18. Self-Determination • Local people have a right and a responsibility to be involved in determining community needs and identifying community resources that can be used to address those needs. Self-Help • People are best served when their capacity to help themselves is acknowledged and developed. When people assume responsibility for their own well-being, they build independence and become part of the solution.

19. Institutional Responsiveness Leadership Development • The training of local leaders in such skills as problem solving, decision making, and group process is an essential component of successful self-help and improvement efforts. • Public institutions exist to serve the public and are obligated to develop programs and services that address continuously changing public needs and interests.

20. Integrated Delivery of Services • Organizations and agencies that operate for the public good can meet their own goals and better serve the public by collaborating with organizations and agencies with similar goals. Decentralization • Services, programs, and other community involvement opportunities that are closest to people's homes have the greatest potential for high levels of public participation. Whenever possible, these activities should be available in locations with easy public access.

21. Research Shows In Community Schools. . . • Schools have greater community support. • Parents and other community members trust schools, school boards and superintendents. • Communities support referenda. • Community members are more informed about their schools.

22. The Research Study: Measurable Impacts of Community Education on K-12 By Bill Morris, Decision Resources, Ltd.

23. Community Education program users rate the quality of education provided by their school district higher than non-users.

24. Community Education program users have more favorable impressions of both the Superintendent / Administration and School Board than non-users. In the case of the School District’s Superintendent and Administration, Community Education program users post an average increase of 9% in the favorable rating. For School Boards, the average increase is 8%.

25. Community Education program users are more positive than non-users about their School District’s financial management. The fiscal credibility of a School District receives a boost of 15% among Community Education program users when compared with program non-users.

26. Community Education program users are stronger supporters of referendum proposals. Community Education program users are 14% more supportive of referendum proposals than non-users. These gains are also realized among all age groups and household types. More striking, though, Community Education program users are three times more likely to be “strongly” supportive of referendum efforts. In fact, among seniors over the age of 65, a solid majority of program users support referenda; among non-users, seniors oppose referenda by a two-to-one majority. Community Education program users are stronger supporters of referendum proposals.

27. Community Education program users are better informed about their School District than non-users. By an almost 20% margin, Community Education program participants feel well informed about their School District.

28. How could Community Education be funded?

29. Fund 80

30. Fund 80 Statutory Authority Statutory Authority: 120.13(19) Community Programs and Services - "A school board may establish and maintain community education, training, recreational, cultural or athletic programs and services, outside the regular curricular and extracurricular programs for pupils, under such terms and conditions as the school board prescribes. The school board may establish and collect fees to cover all or part of the costs of such programs and services. Costs associated with such programs and services shall not be included in the school district's shared cost under 121.07(6)."

31. Potential Uses for Fund 80 This fund is used to account for activities such as adult education, community recreation programs such as evening swimming pool operation and softball leagues, elderly food service programs, non-special education preschool, day care services, and other programs which are not elementary and secondary educational programs but have the primary function of serving the community. Expenditures for these activities, including cost allocations for salaries, benefits, travel, purchased services, etc., are to be included in this Fund to the extent feasible. The district may adopt a separate tax levy for this Fund.

32. The definition of Community Education is uniquely dependent upon where the program and/or process is based.

33. WHAT COLUMBUS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER OFFERS: • Youth Services--tutoring, after school services-homework help, lab and IMC open. • Youth Outreach and Enrichment--Early Release day activities, Art and Chess Club, Arts Night, Tae Kwon Do

34. WHAT WE OFFER cont.’d • Adult/Community Learning Opportunities-- Adult Enrichment classes-art, computers, knitting, yoga, Spanish, I-Safe, CPI • Family Activities and Outreach--Early Learning Celebration, Parenting Education, C-Fin webpage and lending library, Playgroup

35. Cornell/Lake Holcombe 21st Century CLC

36. Cornell/Lake Holcombe 21stCentury CLC SFP FIRST 21st Community Education Century CLC

37. Schools as an Island Many schools are like islands, set apart from the mainland of life by a deep moat of convention and tradition. A drawbridge is lowered at certain points of the day in order that the part-time inhabitants may cross over to the island in the morning and back to the mainland at night. Why do these young people go out to the islands? To learn how to live on the mainland. When they reach the island they are provided with excellent books that tell about life on the mainland.

38. Schools as an Island - continued Once in a while as a special treat, a bus takes a few of the young people off the island during the day to look at what happens on the mainland. When everyone on the island has left in the afternoon, the drawbridge is raised. Janitors clean up the island and the lights go out. No one is left except perhaps a watchman keeping a vigil along the shoreland. The island is lifeless.

39. Schools as an Island - continued Once a year people from the mainland visit the island to watch graduation, after which some islanders depart never to set foot on the island again. After graduates leave the island for the last time, they are bombarded by problems of life on the mainland. Occasionally one of them can be heard to say to another: “I remember reading something about that when we were on the island.” Linking Schools With Life - William Carr - USA - 1942

40. Thank You Dan, Katy and Julie