Knoxville News Sentinel/May 25, 2012 Knox County Working to Expand Community School Concept
For the last two school years, Knox County has been piloting a community school at Pond Gap Elementary and it is seeing results.
Now the school district wants to expand the concept and is trying to decide whether to move into more elementary schools or into the upper grade levels.
“What an expansion looks like will be dependent on what kinds of resources we have to provide that,” said Melissa Massie, the district’s executive director of student support services. “One of the really key essential pieces is a community resource coordinator.”
Under the community schools concept, buildings are used for more than just teaching students.
With the help of community partners, schools become a hub — staying open in the evenings, on weekends and during the summer for everything from health clinics to sites for yoga classes.
The Cincinnati public school system — which has gone from being in an academic emergency to being the highest-performing urban school district in the state of Ohio for the past two years — has become a national model for the concept.