Knoxville News Sentinel / September 19, 2011 While touring one of the four schools in Cincinnati, Jerry Hodges, executive director of Knoxville’s Project GRAD, said he was all for the concept.
“I think every community, the center of that community should be the school. I don’t care what community you’re in,” he said. “Now to figure out a way to make that happen is, of course, the trick.”
Hodges said the question becomes “Is it the will of the community?”
“Is this something the community really wants?” he asked. “And if so, it ought to be a serious conversation.”
On Friday, Hodges was among 20 Knox County leaders who traveled for a day long trip to Cincinnati to see its model of community schools.
Under the 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 sate of Ohio for the last two years — has become a national model for the concept.
Darlene Kamine, executive director of the Community Learning Center Institute in Cincinnati, said the most important thing that school district did when it first began talking about the concept of community schools was a change in thinking.