School districts should make use of existing funding streams and partnerships to support the community schools model rather than try to obtain new funding, says a new brief from the Partnership for Children and Youth, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization.
The report provides strategies for financing and sustaining community schools, with specific guidance on how to develop partnerships with local government agencies and repurpose existing education funding.
A few successful community schools efforts are profiled in California: the Sacramento City, Ontario-Montclair, Bear Valley, and Redwood City school districts, and the Lake County office of education. All are in California.
In other community schools news, New Mexico’s governor, Susana Martinez-R, signed a community schools measure into law this month, which in addition to supporting community schools throughout the state, enables districts to apply for additional grant funding to implement such a model. Also this month, legislation was introduced in Connecticut that would enable qualifying districts to choose two elementary schools and one high school to remake as community schools with funding support from the state.