What's a Community School Coordinator?
The Community School Coordinator works collaboratively with the school principal and other school support staff to design, develop and/or implement Community School programming including: Family and student support services, Health services, Enrichment activities including those that occur during the school day, after school and summer , Family and community engagement activities, and Community sponsorship, partnership, and volunteer infrastructure.
Download the Toolkit
We've created a 2022 Coordinators Appreciation Week toolkit filled with resources to help you highlight the amazing Coordinators you know, as well as spread the word about the role they play in growing the Community School movement.
Take Action
Join our letter campaign for organizers and supporters of the Community Schools movement engaging in policy and advocacy outreach to lawmakers to secure more funding for Community Schools in FY23! Congress will soon be finalizing the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2023, and they need to hear from you that the Community Schools strategy is a comprehensive approach to restructuring and reimagining our public education system so that all students can learn and thrive. Use this tool to tell your story (feel free to add in your own examples and stories of impact to strengthen the message) of the benefits of Community Schools and send that message to your representatives now. Together, we can advance the Community School strategy, by garnering bipartisan support at the local, state, and national levels.
Welcome to CAW 2022! Hear from some of the hardworking Community School Coordinators about what they do, and why it’s so important:
Check out these headlines sharing more about the success of the Community School strategy, and the importance of the Coordinator role!
At a ‘Community School,’ This Educator Ensures All Kids Feel Known, Seen, and Heard
“On a rainy Monday before winter break, the hallways at Fruit Valley Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington, were unusually quiet. The pandemic had cut enrollment nearly in half, but that didn’t deter Staci Boehlke, who runs the school’s resource center.
She welcomed police officers into the colorful, light-filled space as they dropped off bags of donated toys. She spoke with a parent whose landlord sent a warning about late rent. And after recess, she found dry socks and shoes for a kindergartner who couldn’t resist stomping through puddles on the playground.
That’s why Boehlke, petite in jeans with faded knees and pink Converse sneakers, shows up every day — to offer a sense of stability to students whose homes can be turbulent, ensuring they never feel overlooked as she did as a child.”
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Implementing Full-Service Community Schools in a Rural Setting: Early Lessons from Leslie County, Kentucky
“Begley, Lewis, and Ostrander are three of the five site coordinators who have been working in Leslie County Schools since 2020, when the district was awarded a FullService Community Schools Program (FSCS) grant, a program of the US Department of Education focused on improving the integration of social and health services into high-poverty school districts. By 2018, the FSCS model had been implemented in an estimated 5,000 schools across the country. Despite 20 percent of all US public school students residing in rural areas, only an estimated eight percent of FSCS grants have been awarded to rural communities.* In an effort to combat this discrepancy, the FSCS grant now prioritizes districts that qualify for the Small Rural School Achievement or the Rural and Low-Income School programs. To capitalize on this opportunity, Partners for Rural Impact (PRI), an educational organization in Eastern Kentucky supporting rural local education agencies in achieving highquality and equitable learning outcomes for all students, has set out to support rural districts in applying for and implementing FSCS grants.”
case study from EdReDesign
