New resource center unveiled
CALEXICO – For much of the past 17 years, the Calexico Unified School District’s Family Resource Center had been operating out of a relatively small modular building on Highway 98 near Mains Elementary.
For about 15 of those years, FRC coordinator Hortencia Armendariz had held out hope that a more expansive site would be located for its various services and growing volume of clientele.
Today, Armendariz and her fellow FRC staff members are being housed at the former Aurora High School campus and now have the additional space and enhanced amenities she long dreamed of.
“You can’t see my big ol’ smile,” Armendariz said from behind her face covering on Tuesday while leading a tour of the site at 641 Rockwood Ave.
Though not visible, that smile was a constant presence throughout Tuesday’s tour, as Armendariz explained FRC’s crucial role and how its new location also houses several other CUSD student support services departments, which together are expected to better serve students, parents and staff.
As the district with the largest student body in the Valley, CUSD officials have seen a corresponding need to assist some of its most vulnerable students and families, which can number in the hundreds.
In response, FRC was set up about 17 years ago to provide resources that will help students and families produce positive outcomes at home, at school and around the community.
Though much of its success is owed to the center’s collaboration with local stakeholders, an equal amount of recognition is owed to Armendariz’s tireless efforts and the trust she has inspired from the community, said CUSD Superintendent Carlos Gonzales.
“That’s the type of person you need in this position,” Gonzales said.
The center’s relocation was made possible by $1.6 million in Local Control and Accountability Plan funds the CUSD Board of Trustees authorized for use during the 2019-20 school year, officials said.
The renovation of the former continuation high school’s campus got underway about a year ago and recently finished. Its expansion was prompted by input the district’s campus communities provided to its LCAP committee.
Along with new office space for the FRC’s six staff members, the new site will also house staff from the district’s ASES (After School Education and Safety) program, Food Services and Migrant Education Program departments, and outside community agencies.
During the tour, CUSD Board Trustee Michael Castillo said he was unaware of any other Valley school district that assembled such an array of resources in one location.
“This one really offers the whole package of various services in one spot,” Castillo said. FRC has been providing a variety of services for the 50 to 100 students who pass through its doors on a monthly basis. Those confidential services are often prompted by questions related to enrollment, technology, public assistance and immigration, and handled by the center’s coordinator, student support specialist, licensed clinical social workers and homeless facilitator.
Aside from new paint, furnishings, parking lot and flooring, the new FRC includes amenities expected to further enhance its past efforts.
The main office includes
a large parent training room that will be used to host sessions that in the past have been organized by outside agencies such as the Sure Helpline Crisis Center, Child Abuse Prevention Council and local law enforcement agencies.
Typically in the past, FRC had to secure space at one of the district’s various campuses to conduct such meetings, since its modular building was not large enough to accommodate the crowds.
Space within the new center’s 6,000-square-foot main office also has been set aside to install a washer and dryer, which will be used to wash the clothes of students experiencing homelessness that Armendariz often had taken home to wash herself.
Donated clothes, pantry items, school supplies and hygienic items will now be stored in a walk-in closet within the main office, and allow students access year-round. Resources are available through the FRC for children as young as 3, and up to 21 years of age,
officials said.
A separate building at the site houses the center’s Community and Parent (CAP) Center, which can accommodate up to 100 people. The CAP Center will also hold training sessions for larger groups of parents and staff, as well as to help distribute items to large groups.
Parent training sessions have been offered to parents over the past four years and have consisted of interactive presentations related to health, and social and emotional well-being.
“This is going to be the hub for the community,” Gonzales said, referring to the CAP Center.
Plans call for LCAP funds to be used to renovate another of the site’s buildings to provide childcare services for the parents attending meetings and training sessions.
Rather than simply provide a space where the children can be monitored, the building will be formatted to them to safety participate in ed
ucational activities. “It’s going to be two-fold,” said Alejandra Limon, district coordinator of Migrant Education Programs.
The district’s coming school year will employ a distant learning model, similar to all other local school districts.
It had previously invested heavily in acquiring electronic devices for its nearly 9,000 students, and adopted the use of online platforms to communicate with parents. Gonzales said these past initiatives will help the district with its distant learning efforts going forward. The district’s past concerns about a potential 10 percent reduction in state funding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have also since been eased. Instead of a budget loss, the district is now expecting additional funds to be allocated to it through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Gonzales said.