Double duty: schools as community centers: does the Obama administration's strategy really work?

Double duty: schools as community centers: does the Obama administration's strategy really work? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN THE BELL RINGS at the end of the school day, many elementarystudents in Rosa Parks School in Portland, Ore., go to the local Boysand Girls Club to receive homework help and take part in fun activities.They don't have to travel far to get there. That's because the Boys and Girls Club of PortlandMetropolitan Area, which also serves neighborhood kids who don't goto Rosa Parks, is located in the same building as the school, the resultof a partnership between Portland Public Schools and the local Boys andGirls Club. It's these kinds of partnerships between schools andgovernment and nonprofit agencies that the Obama administration ishoping to foster. President Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan have beenpushing for "community schools," which offer facilities andprograms outside regular school hours, typically in partnerships withnonprofit or city agencies. These programs can include adult classes,after-school activities, student tutoring and even medical care. The administration redesigned the 21st Century Community LearningCenters program, which received nearly $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2010.This program helps create community learning centers that provideacademic enrichment opportunities, such as math and literacy help tostudents, during non-school hours, particularly students who attendhigh-poverty and low-performing schools. The administration's push for community schools is beinghelped by the realization on the part of an increasing number of schooldistricts that the approach has financial, as well as social andeducational, benefits. Research shows that for every dollar a schoolsystem spends on such partnerships, it sees a return of four dollars inthe value of the services the district receives, says Martin Blank,director of the Coalition for Community Schools. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We are seeing more interest in this model because of theefficiencies it offers," Blank says. Although there are manyversions of community schools, Blank estimates there are 3,000 to 5,000such schools nationally that generally meet the criteria. The community school concept, sometimes called extended learningtime (ELT), is gaining traction among educators and policy-makers as a"potent school improvement strategy," according to"Expanded Time, Enriching Experiences," a report released inFebruary by the Center for American Progress. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ELT schools provide academics and enrichment instruction tostudents, professional development to teachers, mental and physicalhealth services to students, and outreach to parents. "In short,ELT has enabled many schools and their partners to collaborate moreintensively and more strategically than they did when the schools wereoperating on a traditional school schedule," the report states. Revamping the School Model Mound Fort Junior High School in the Ogden (Utah) School Districtis transforming into a community school with the help of a $2.5 millioncommunity schools federal grant. The SCOPE program, or Schools andCommunity in Ogden Partnering for Excellence, is a full-servicecommunity school that provides services for the junior high school andthe community. Some programs cater to the community, such as the HeadStart program, while other programs, such as an after-school program,cater only to the students. Since October 2008, the 750-student, low-income school hasestablished four Head Start classes and has expanded its existingstudent tutoring program, which it provides in conjunction with a localYMCA and local university student volunteers, says Luis Lopez,coordinator of the community school project. The school, which serves many Latino students, added a mentalhealth counselor and offers ESL and Spanish-language GED classes foradults three nights a week, with child care provided during those hours. Mound Fort also partnered with community groups, including seniorsat nearby Weaver State University, to hold a health fair last fall thatoffered free physical exams, dental and vision screening, glucosetesting and even massage therapy to community members and students. Future plans include providing adult classes in computers andcitizenship, and partnering with a university or legal organization toprovide pro bono legal help in areas like immigration. The aim of a community school is to marshal community resources andsupport parental involvement, Lopez says. "What we are trying to do is to address external needs thatstudents and families may have [and] to fulfill those needs so that kidscan achieve academically," says Lopez, whose district is locatedabout 35 miles north of Salt Lake City. Joining with a City Wake County (N.C.) Public Schools has partnered with four differentcities to create five community centers, which have all opened withinthe past five years. When the district aims to build a new school, itapproaches the municipality to see if it sees any recreational needsthat would make it interested in partnering with the district, saysZackery Davis, the district's joint-use administrator. In the early 2000s, an area of land in the city of Raleigh wasslated for residential development. Seeing the need for a new school andrecreation center to serve the new residents, the city and districtjointly purchased about 20 acres of land. After reaching a local development agreement in 2003 stating wherethe monies would come from and what the two agencies wished to have, thecity and district jointly designed the project, which opened three yearslater and consisted of a new school--Brier Creek Elementary--with acommunity center attached. It was a win-win arrangement, Davis says. The district'selementary schools typically don't have gyms, but instead havemultipurpose rooms where students can take part in recreationalactivities. With the partnership, the school gained a gym withbasketball nets and other spaces for athletics. The city, in turn,gained a community center, which is open past school hours. It hostsyouth basketball leagues and offers a weight room and adult activitieslike table tennis, as well as senior activities. The city staffs thecommunity center and runs licensed child care programs before and afterschool. Brier Creek is a year-round, multitrack school, meaning somestudents at any one time are in school while the others are"track-out," or on vacation. Those child-care programs offeractivities during the day for the "track-out" students to givethem something to do on vacation. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sharing the Costs Both the city of Raleigh and the Wake County district shared in theconstruction of the community center attached to the school. Like withother joint partnerships, the city paid the additional costs associatedwith the joint use above that which the district would have paid duringthe normal course of building a school. In other words, the city paidfor expenses such as extra square footage, parking and lighting beyondthat which the school would have built had it not partnered with thecity. So the district pays only the cost associated with the schoolitself, Davis explains. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the case of Brier Creek, the district contributed the money itwould have spent building a multipurpose room, Davis says. The districtalso paid for the portion of the costs to costruct a P.E. office andstorage room inside the community center that the school uses. Theproject cost $17 million to construct, $3.2 million of which came fromthe city. The two agencies share utility costs based on square footage. Davis says it's important for representatives of the city andschool to discuss facility-related issues like scheduling. The"three Cs"--collaboration, cooperation and communication--are"the key to the success of any joint use," he adds. Financial Synergies As for the Rosa Parks School, the district's partnerships withthe Boys and Girls Club and the city's housing and recreationdepartments solved a major problem, says Doug Capps, senior projectmanager and manager of community and government relations for PortlandPublic Schools. In the early 2000s, the city was preparing to tear down dilapidatedpublic housing and replace it with new and more numerous housing unitsin a residential project called New Columbia. But the nearby school wastoo small to serve the residents who would reside in the units. At a time of declining district enrollment and state educationbudget cuts, the partnerships helped the district afford Rosa ParksSchool, which opened in the 2006-2007 academic year, the same period inwhich much of the housing project's units were first madeavailable. The Portland Homing Authority offered to provide the districtpart of the land, at no cost, in the New Columbia project for a newschool and donated $1 million toward construction costs. The city ofPortland bought the district property that hosted the small, originalschool building, taking it off the district's hands. And the Parks and Recreation Department had already been planningto build a new gymnasium at the site, which the agency agreed to let theschool use. The Boys and Girls Club, which held a fundraiser with thehelp of the district and the other partners in the project, also sharedthe construction costs. The district took on about $9 million in debt for the project,about half the amount it would have had to carry without themoney-saving partnerships, Capps says. "The district dearly was going to have to spend money to dosomething to accommodate the [additional] kids somewhere," Cappssays. "And if you could get a new school out of the deal for about50 cents on the dollar, what's wrong with that?" Like Rosa Parks, John A. Johnson Achievement Plus ElementarySchool, which is part of Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools, has a youthservices nonprofit attached to the school, in Johnson's case aYMCA, which provides after-school activities to students and also servesthe general public. But Johnson goes beyond that by partnering with other organizationsto offer a medical clinic on-site two days a week, a center connectingneedy families with housing and clothing, and help for adults to jobsearch and practice interviewing, says Melissa Lehmann, principal of the10-year-old school. Coordinating It All Cincinnati Public Schools' l0-year, $1 billion FacilitiesMaster Plan--slated to be completed in about three years--includes thecommunity school concept, in which schools partner with outsideorganizations to offer services in school facilities. Partners at eachschool of staff, parents, volunteers and nonprofits, who are chosen by acommittee, can include social service agencies, mental healthorganizations and after-school providers. Cincinnati's Ethel M. Taylor Academy, a 450-student, pre-K5school, has partnered with a variety of outside organizations to provideservices, including a nonprofit that delivers psychotherapy to studentson-site and another, Central Clinic, that offers after-school enrichmentactivities until 6 p.m. The school makes its computer lab available foradults and holds parent enrichment classes. A Central Clinic employee works at the school full-time as theresource coordinator, interfacing between the school staff and thepartners. Blank believes it's critical to have a resources coordinatorto help manage--and expand--partnerships. Embracing the community schoolmodel requires commitment among various organizations to work closelytogether to support student learning, he says. "The most important thing," Blank continues, "iscommunity leadership--leadership that recognizes that children need amore comprehensive approach to education, that if we redly are going toeducate all of our children to a higher standard, you have to payattention to their academic, social and emotional needs." Kevin Butler is a contributing writer to DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION.