Community School Update
Felecia introduced herself and gave a Community School Program Update.
Three coordinators are in place—Steuart Hill, Vivien T Thomas, Charles Carroll Barrister.
Focus this year has been on the needs assessment and planning.
Goals:
- Understand the model and national best practices
- First year focusing of
o Integrated student support
- Staff member coordinating support programs to address out of school learning barriers
- Mental and physical health services support student success
o Want to raise awareness of what the community school model is the community is as a whole
o Collaborative leadership and practices—building a culture of professional learning, collective trust, shared responsibility
- Building/strengthening school family council as a community school steering committee
Kirwan Commission Update
Abigail provided a Kirwan Commission funding update that was provided by the BTU (Baltimore Teacher’s Union).
Thorough and efficient public schools is established in MD constitution but the state has not been adequately funding it. The committee discussed ways to advocate for the passage of legislation that will fully fund the Kirwan Commission recommendations.
Activity Discussion
The SWP has been setting indicators and performance measures to evaluate and define our work.
What Kind of Group Do We Want to Be?
Abigail laid out options for how the committee could operate:
- As a standing body, informed, reactive resource for other partners and projects
- As a group of active, engaged community members working on their own projects who report back and keep each other updated
- As a group who is working on shared, area-wide projects, but also do other projects and serve as a standing body
What Do We Want to Do?
The committee discussed ideas for projects—liked the idea of focusing on community literacy. Always a need to support the community school model and implementation.
Stephanie will put together something to school the group on the definition of literacy for April 2nd.
