Knoxville News Sentinel / October 24, 2011 Knox County leaders who have taken on the task of implementing components of the community school model took another step in the process on Monday.
For the first time since traveling to Cincinnati in September to see examples of how it’s worked in that city, members came together to begin answering tough questions — including funding sources and barriers — and planning for the future.
Melissa Massie, the Knox County school district’s executive director of student support services, said the goal of Monday’s meeting was really begin thinking about the next steps.
“This was our first time since the trip to really bring everybody’s ideas or thoughts together,” she said. “This was a preliminary discussion to identify a few areas for those next steps.”
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 last two years — has become a national model for the concept.
From Monday’s gathering, Massie said she will collect all of the ideas and present themes back out to the wider group.
“We will establish some priorities and think about what some of those next steps (are) — the next piece of what these community-based schools would look like, what service would we prioritize, what schools would we target,” she said. “We will get to those conversations. We’ll look at what are some needs.”
Knox County Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre told the group he felt the whole process was about focusing on the student, one of the goals of the district’s strategic plan.
“What I liked about Cincinnati is that this service model is not an end unto itself,” he said. “It was a means to an end and that end was enhancing student learning, removing barriers to student achievement. For me, that’s what it’s all about and what this whole conversation needs to be about.”
Caleb Fristoe, with the United Way, said to make the concept of community schools work, it would take the community.
“That’s the point for me, to just get people on the same page, and get us all speaking in the same direction and figuring it out what it really is that we can be on task about,” he said. “(Monday) was a first step.”