Allegheny County Director of Human Services Marc Cherna is a fan of the “Community Schools” concept—and that’s a good thing, because now that Pittsburgh Public Schools has designated five schools to be the district’s first Community Schools, his department will be providing the bulk of the services they require.
“I think it’s important that schools become more of a community setting,” he said. “I’d love to see them stay open later. Not just as a learning thing, but with supportive, community services. A number of agencies can do this, and the schools choose those partners.”
Community Schools aim to improve student outcomes by combining traditional approaches with community-based resources on site. Through this centralized delivery model, the district hopes to build stronger communities by enlisting parents and families to address barriers to learning.
In a May 18 press release announcing the five facilities designated Community Schools for the 2017-2018 first phase, Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet said he is excited about the initiative’s prospects.
“We know that Community Schools will create a strong connection between educators and stakeholders in the broader community to support students’ academic success by providing holistic services,” he said. “Community Schools are an integrated system of engagement with an approach that values and includes everyone.”
In this first phase of the transition, a 26-member steering committee winnowed down a field of 21 applicants to arrive at the five designated Community Schools: Pittsburgh Westinghouse, Pittsburgh Faison, Pittsburgh Lincoln, Pittsburgh Arsenal 6-8 and Pittsburgh Langley K-8.
The designations were based on multiple criteria, including absenteeism, suspensions, students with disabilities, percentage of students who are English Language Learners, and key partners who provide the schools with services. The Community Schools concept will gauge how violence, poverty and health conditions in the community where the school is located might affect students and their families.
The district’s five-year Strategic Plan, which was unveiled a few weeks ago, calls for all schools to eventually become Community Schools, providing not only education, but a range of social and health services—including mental health services—to students and their families.
The Homewood Children’s Village and Communities in Schools have already been selected to provide some of the wraparound services. Others, Cherna said, would be selected according to need, location, etc.
Cherna said his department’s involvement with the initiative does not mean PPS would be siphoning services that would have gone elsewhere. It’s simply a different delivery model. He said he hasn’t been asked for anything specific yet, but his department serves on the advisory committee.
“Unfortunately, we already do a lot of business in the community. We do truancy prevention—a lot of the kids are in our system, via homeless services, housing. And we do a ton of afterschool,” he said.
“The point is, if you can invest in services there, that will prevent paying for higher-end services down the road. A lot of places around the country have health clinics right in the schools. It’s a preventative model to get people what they need before they penetrate the system in a bigger way down the road.”
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