Email Blast - September 09, 2009

In this issue:


Healthy Start Teleconference

Join Us on this Call!

Topics that will be covered:

  • Gain more parent involvement at your school or district office
  • Becoming more involved as a parent; learn about existing school committees, i.e. SST, ELAC, DELAC, School Boards, Student Climate Committees, and other Advisory Committees
  • Gain parents’ support in students’ academic success
  • Improve communication between parents and educators
  • Address language and cultural barriers

For more information please email Kindra F. Montgomery-Block @ kfmontgomery@ucdavis.edu


The Coalition for Community Schools is calling for workshop and field-building dialogue/affinity group proposals.

Building Innovative Partnerships for Student Success: The Key to America's Future is this year’s theme. We are celebrating the fact that partnerships are at the heart of the community schools approach—bringing schools, families, community residents, higher education and an array of other community partners together around a common result—student success. 

Innovation is the word of the day in education reform, as the U.S. Department of Education rolls out its new education reform strategy. Community schools are an innovation that is turning around student performance as it builds on a very American principle, that schools are inextricably connected to their communities and best educate students when they function as centers of community. Student success is the result that everyone is seeking for young people...enabling them to graduate from high school ready for careers, college, and citizenship. Attaining this goal is vital to the future for our nation.

We encourage creative proposals that demonstrate an understanding of the Forum’s theme and enable participants to gain the knowledge and skills to create and sustain community schools. Please click here to download the guidelines and click here to view the application form. Proposal submission deadline is COB Thursday, October 15, 2009. Please contact Maame Ameyaw at ccs@iel.org if you have any questions regarding the conference.


How may Title I, Part A ARRA funds be used to support the implementation of a community-school model?

A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. It provides academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement, and brings together many partners to offer a range of support and opportunities for children, youth, families, and communities. The school is generally open for extended hours for everyone in the community. Community schools may operate in all or a subset of schools in an LEA.

Title I, Part A ARRA funds may be used for components of a community-school model in a school operating a schoolwide program. For example, if funds are not reasonably available from other public or private sources and the LEA has engaged in a comprehensive needs assessment, Title I, Part A ARRA funds might be used to hire a coordinator to facilitate the delivery of health, nutrition, and social services to the school’s students in partnership with local service providers. Title I, Part A ARRA funds also might be used for (1) professional development necessary to assist teachers, pupil services personnel, other staff, and parents in identifying and meeting the comprehensive needs of students, and (2) as a last resort when funds are not reasonably available from other public or private sources, the provision of basic medical equipment, such as eyeglasses and hearing aids. Additionally, Title I, Part A ARRA funds might be used to fund a family literacy program for parents who need to improve their literacy skills in order to support their children’s learning if the LEA has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for those activities. (ESEA section 1118(e)(7).)

Title I, Part A ARRA funds also might be used for instructionally related activities such as paying a classroom teacher to be available in the evenings as part of a homework-support program. The school might also work with community partners to sponsor evening recreational and other activities such as youth sports leagues, family counseling, housing fairs, or financial services fairs designed to meet student and community needs, but for which Title I, Part A ARRA funds may not be used.


Photo and Essay Contest

In an effort to raise awareness of the need to fund school buildings that support learning and provide a safe, healthy environment for students and teachers, Critical Exposure, the 21st Century School Fund, and the Healthy Schools Campaign are providing us an opportunity to show the public and our policymakers what our public schools really look like.

From now until September 14th, students, teachers, parents, and anyone with a stake in our public schools can enter the contest at www.ThroughYourLens.org. Your photos and stories will help inform a national debate over federal funding for public school facility repair, modernization and construction

Selected photos and stories from students and teachers will be shown at a special exhibition in Washington, DC, possibly in the Russell Rotunda of the Capitol! Many more entries will be published in a "Through Your Lens" book and in an online gallery. Five student winners will also receive a Vado pocket video camcorder from Creative Labs.

For more information about the contest, to submit images, to download the contest flyer, or to find ways to promote the contest, please visit www.throughyourlens.org/promote.php.

 

The HSFO is a project of the Center for Community-School Partnerships.
The HSFO is a collaboration between University of California, Davis and the California Department of Education.
The HSFO is located in the School of Education's CRESS Center.