Chesterton Elementary

"Community schools take a “whole-child” approach to supporting students’ educational and life success. They pay explicit attention to students’ social and emotional development as well as their academic learning, recognizing that they are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. They provide and coordinate a range of on-site services and supports to overcome both academic and nonacademic barriers to students’ educational and life success. The mix of offerings can vary, since they are tailored to meet local needs, but some of the most common services and supports are medical, dental, and mental health care services; tutoring and other academic supports; and resources for families, such as parent education classes, job training and placement services, housing assistance, and nutrition programs. These programs may also provide conflict resolution training, trauma-informed care, and restorative practices to support mental health and lessen conflict, bullying, and punitive disciplinary actions, such as suspensions." 

Community Schools Playbook

"Educators collaborate with community partners to provide well-structured learning activities during out-of-school time and summer, using school facilities and other community spaces. This approach makes clear that enriched learning time is the responsibility of both schools and communities. Programs vary, depending on community priorities." 

Community Schools Playbook

"Active family and community engagement—the third pillar of community schools—is essential to fostering relationships of trust and respect, building the capacity of all stakeholders and the school, creating empowered decision-making processes, and leveraging local resources and expertise to address educational inequities. Community schools prioritize meaningful and ongoing engagement of families and community members and establish the systems, structures, and supports to make it happen. Educators and other staff at community schools understand that engagement happens on a continuum—from partnering with parents to develop and promote a vision for student success, to offering courses, activities, and services for parents and community members, to creating structures and opportunities for shared leadership. Families and community members, for their part, feel welcome, supported, and valued as essential partners." 

Community Schools Playbook

"Collaborative leadership and practices, the fourth pillar of community schools, provides the relational “glue” that connects and reinforces the other pillars, making it foundational and critical for the success of a community school strategy. By developing a shared vision and goals and creating participatory practices for distributing responsibilities, a community school leverages the collective expertise of all of its stakeholders. In many schools, collaborative leadership and practices are central to the work of the professionals in the building—teachers, administrators, nonteaching staff, and union leaders. Examples of this include professional learning communities, site-based teams charged with improving school policy and classroom teaching and learning, labor-management collaborations, and teacher development strategies, such as peer assistance and review." 

Community Schools Playbook