For more than a decade, educators, parents, and community members have been building Community Schools across the district into hubs of support for students and their families. In 2017, organizing won the formal adoption of the Community Schools model by the district. Two years later, our strike helped secure funding for the first cohort of 30 Community Schools. Today, there are 70 Community Schools across the district—and we’re still building. 

In our last contract, we won an additional $100,000 in local funding for existing Community Schools, four release-day training to bring together Community Schools Coordinators, Community School Parent Representatives, Chapter Chairs, and Principals, and funding for four district-wide Community School Coach positions. 

The new training language was designed to address a district-wide challenge in community schools. When Community Schools leaders lack collaboration time it limits what they could accomplish by working together. Fighting for training time that brings all four leaders from each Community School together for a joint training with the same curriculum, information, and shared understanding was a major win for Community Schools.  

Last week, nearly 300 community school leaders came together for the first of those four training days. Community Schools Coordinators, Parent Reps, Chapter Chairs, and Principals developed a shared understanding of how Local School Leadership Councils (LSLCs) work and how to make them run effectively. They also had a chance to learn Robert’s Rules and put them into practice to ensure every voice at the table is heard. 

Community Schools work best when the people closest to students and families have the time, resources, and structure to learn, plan, and build a plan for their school together. What we won at the bargaining table is helping build Community Schools where educators, parents, and families have a say in how their schools can serve the needs to the entire school community. We bargained for the time and resources to build stronger Community Schools. Now we’re putting that win to work for our students, our families, and our communities.