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City school board adopts ‘community schools’ policy
The board of the Pittsburgh Public Schools adopted a policy Wednesday that will pave the way for some district buildings to serve as hubs for social-service programs for students and the neighborhood.
In a 5-2 vote, members approved a “community schools” policy, with Lynda Wrenn and Terry Kennedy voting against it, citing concerns over how the district would pay for the model.
“I kind of feel like we’re putting the cart before the horse,” Ms. Wrenn said.
Kevin Carter and Sylvia Wilson were absent.
District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said costs associated with the policy haven’t been determined yet. Board president Regina Holley said details of how it will be carried out will follow.
Calling the policy an “overarching idea,” school board member Moira Kaleida pointed out that funding for community schools is available through the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The actual cost of running a community school, she noted, is not much beyond the salary for a site coordinator, who organizes the services offered in a community school.
Buildings will be designated as community schools through an application process and “determination of program
sustainability,” the district said.
Sandra Woolley, co-chair of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network’s education task force, said she and others have studied community schools for years, and she called the district’s policy a good start.
“The community schools [model] is really saying, ‘Let’s offer the kinds of services for children to have the same opportunity as children in more affluent families,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we really look forward to working with [superintendent] Dr. [Anthony] Hamlet and the school board in writing the regulations.”
Some community schoolrelated efforts are already underway in the district.
Detria Dixon, who is employed by the Homewood Children’s Village, works as a full-time community schools site director at Westinghouse 6-12. She said the model there has cost the district nothing besides the extra cost for security and custodians Monday through Thursday, when the building stays open until 7 p.m. for after-school programs. She’s working to develop offerings for adults.
“I think the policy will be super helpful because it will be a systematic approach and not just a couple of schools doing it,” said LouAnn Zwierynski, principal of Westinghouse.
The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and some school directors have coveted the community schools model in other urban districts for years. In April 2014, about 30 people from Pittsburgh went to a conference on the topic in Cincinnati. The idea was raised in Pittsburgh during an “envisioning” process a year earlier that explored ways to address district financial and academic challenges (although the report that resulted from that process didn’t suggest it.)
“So much of the focus is on teacher quality. You will never hear me say that teachers are not extraordinarily important ... but so is nourishment, so is poverty,” said PFT president Nina Esposito-Visgitis.
Cate Reed, treasurer of the political action committee Campaign for Quality Schools Pittsburgh, has cautioned that the community schools concept is not a panacea for all struggling schools.
“My concern is when we swing the pendulum so far to suggest that if we simply increase nonacademic support in a school that is struggling academically, that that will then make the academic results change. I don’t think there is evidence of that ever happening.
“Wraparound supports are necessary but not sufficient to give kids the academic opportunities they deserve.”