Current Newsletter

Coalition for Community Schools Message from the Director November 2018

Highlights from the field Teacher and students tending to the garden

Photo by Adam Sodders: Staff and students at Rogers, Woodbury and Anson elementary schools are set to see $500,000 a year in federal grant money.

The U.S. Department of Education Announces Full-Service Community Schools Grantee Awardees

The U.S. Department of Education announced the Full-Service Community Schools 15 grantee awardees . The awardee funds will help encourage coordination of academic, social, and health services through a consortium of public elementary and secondary schools, community-based organizations, non-profit organizations, and other public or private entities.

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Community Schools in the Mount Vernon Pyramid

Click on video to view Fairfax County Public Schools launch of the community schools pilot

The tenth largest school district in the U.S. pilots the community school strategy

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia is piloting community schools at Whitman Middle and Mt. Vernon Woods Elementary School. United Community Ministries is partnering with FCPS to do a needs assessment with school staff and parents, as well as mapping existing resources before implementing the community schools strategy.

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Vancuver Public Schools Community School Coordinators take a picture for Coordinators Appreciation Week!

Community school coordinators across the country were celebrated in Coordinators Appreciation Week

The Coalition for Community Schools hosted its second annual Coordinators Appreciation Week from September 24-28. 77 local, state, and national partners participated in the social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Check out the highlights from the week and catch up on social media by searching#CoordinatorsRock .

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Partner Spotlight two students helping each other

Lights On for Afterschool event mobilizes 1 million Americans to keep lights on for Afterschool

Congratulations to our partner Afterschool Alliance for mobilizing more than 1 million Americans at 8,4000 events and helping them to turn the lights on for Afterschool in 2018. Afterschool Alliance organizes Lights On Afterschool to focus attention on the urgent need to invest in afterschool programs, which provide homework help, mentoring, healthy snacks and meals, art and dance, job- and college-readiness, and opportunities for hands-on, team-based learning.

Coordinator Spotlight Young boy reading a book

Rachel Thapa uses the community schools strategy to create solutions to obstacles that students once faced

In the two years as Coordinator for Lincoln Park Middle School, Rachel Thapa has worked tirelessly to dismantle systems and create solutions to obstacles that students once faced. Read how Rachel has turned around her community school as a Coalition for Community Schools Health Focus Site, from coordinating parent teacher home visits to advocating for a new public bus service line, and more in this month’s Coordinator Spotlight.

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Better Together Children sitting on playground bench

Rise up to end child poverty for all

Mary Kingston Roche, Director of Public Policy for IEL's Coalition for Community Schools, examines the staggering inequalities in poverty rates between white children and children of color. She asks, "Where is our moral outrage, our collective commitment to do something to address this?"

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