Knoxville News Sentinel / September 18, 2011 One of the first things that Craig Hockenberry noticed when he took over as principal of Oyler School was the number of high-school age students in the community who weren’t in school.
“What happened is our kids left us after sixth grade and 86 percent of them never made it to a 10th grade seat,” Hockenberry told a group of Knox County leaders on Friday.
“They would leave our school and they might make it a week or two at one of the high schools, but they just didn’t feel comfortable outside of their neighborhood.”
Then school officials sat down with supporters and partners to answer the question: “What can we do?”
The ultimate answer would turn into the model the school is using today. As a community learning center, with the help of community partners, the school has become the hub of its neighborhood — from its full-service health clinic and an eye care center to serving three meals daily.
“We had to partner with other organizations and other folks to help us meet all of the needs. It was a grassroots effort,” Hockenberry said.
“We brought community members in; we brought teachers in and sat down and said, ‘What are the needs and what are our biggest obstacles?'”
On Friday, 20 Knox County leaders took a day trip to Cincinnati to tour and learn more about the “community school” model, which uses school buildings for more than just teaching students.
With the help of community partners, schools become the hub of a community — remaining open in the evenings, on the weekends and during the summer for everything from health clinics to sites for yoga classes.
The Cincinnati public school system has become a national model for the concept.