The Milwaukee Community Schools Partnership (MCSP) is a collective strategy to transform schools into a place where students, families, staff, and the surrounding community can work together to ensure every student is successful.
MCSP is a partnership between MPS, MTEA and United Way. Through this partnership a Community School Coordinator is placed at the school site to help in the transformation process.
Jessica Mendez is South Division's Community School Coordinator by way of Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers. Ms. Mendez works to manage systems, establish partnerships, evaluate data and analyze the impacts these all have on our students and school community.
Ms. Mendez's office is inside the main office. Visit, call, or email Ms. Mendez anytime!
You might recognize Ms Mendez from the morning announcements Tuesdays at 10:55am!
Watch them here: https://meet.google.com/axx-phug-sxa
Submit announcements for students here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fforms.gle%2FVZHeWJ4HBwrB7B5R8&sa=D
Our aim is to transform schools into a place where students, families, staff, and the surrounding community can work together to ensure every student is successful.
We work to identify the school's concerns, establish priorities and create change that will result in transforming our school. Through our Community School Leadership Team we work collectively to identify our issues, evaluate data, and create real solutions towards achieving our ideal school.
To transform how schools make decisions by engaging diverse stakeholders to participate in the development and ownership of local strategies.
Community School Leadership Team - This diverse team identifies local strategies and makes decisions for how to best ensure student and school success.
Family Leadership Organization - Community Schools work to build family leadership by creating safe, welcoming spaces for local organizing and practicing family-centered engagement strategies.
Youth Council - Community Schools work to build youth leadership by creating safe, welcoming spaces for local organizing and practicing student-centered engagement strategies.
To transform how schools collect and use data; organize and manage partnerships and resources to ensure students, families, and staff have the resources they need to be successful.
Community Engaged Assessment - Each school conducts a community-engaged assessment process that identifies local priorities and uses student centered data to inform goals and strategies.
Developing school vision and setting school-based priorities - Each school develops a shared vision that focuses on local priorities and supports the whole child. This vision is communicated to all stakeholders and has ongoing systems of accountability.
To transform how schools relate and interact with their students, families and community in a more culturally relevant and restorative way leading to positive school cultures, strong relational trust, and high quality teaching.
Culturally Responsive Practices - Schools receive support to implement strategies that build on the assets of the entire community, acknowledge personal and institutional biases, and respond to the self-identities of students, families, school staff and community members.
Restorative Practices - Schools receive support to implement Restorative Practices and other positive behavior strategies that work to build proactive, positive relationships and repair any harm that may have occurred in order to restore relationships with dignity and care.
Engage: A full-time Community School Coordinator increases capacity of the school to engage multiple stakeholders including community partners, families, staff, students and neighborhood residents
Aspire: Schools collectively identify school and community aspirations and barriers to success by collecting diverse knowledge through Community Conversations, combine with additional school & community data
Prioritize: A site-based Community School Leadership Team analyzes data, develops a shared vision, key priorities and strategic plan through local-decision making
Align: Community partnerships, initiatives and policies are developed and/or aligned to support shared vision and key priorities reflected in School Improvement Plan to ensure collaboration and collective action
Follow the Milwaukee Community Schools Partnership to get an idea of what other Community Schools in Milwaukee do!