Communities and schools are strongly linked — one seldom succeeds if the other fails. Schools need families and communities that are involved in the education of students; communities need schools that serve as centers of neighborhood life.
Cincinnati Public Schools is creating campuses that explore and strengthen this link between schools and communities. Called Community Learning Centers (CLC), these schools act as hubs for community services, providing access for students and families to health, safety and social services, as well as recreational, educational and cultural opportunities. CPS is garnering national recognition for its work to create these Community Learning Centers districtwide, not just in isolated neighborhoods.
The goal of Community Learning Centers is to support student achievement, revitalize neighborhoods and maximize the community's return on their financial investment. The success of the schools and the success of the city are inextricably linked. One cannot be successful without the other.
A school that is a Community Learning Center aims to reconnect students and staff with their community, returning to an era when schools truly were the centers of community life. A Community Learning Center offers services and programs tailored to each community's individual needs. For example, based on a study of drop-out rates, Oyler School's community found there was a need for a high school program in their neighborhood. Oyler's community engagement team began offering high-school courses online, aimed at enabling students who had left school to earn their diplomas while working.
Creating a district that is supportive of the needs of families and the community is a key component of the district's new strategic plan, Building Futures. The plan calls for the development of Community Learning Centers offering extended learning opportunities and support for students, families and the community.
The district launched its 10-year, $1-billion Facilities Master Plan in 2002, with the goal of creating Community Learning Centers within all of its fully renovated and newly constructed buildings. There is no "cookie-cutter" design for a Community Learning Center; each represents the energy and needs of its neighborhood.
Under the guidelines of the Facilities Master Plan, all new and renovated buildings are designed with space for community use, such as a meeting room, or co-located partnerships, such as an independently operated health clinic. At the new Rockdale Academy, for example, the building was designed with space for a large clinic with a separate entrance so the community could use it after hours.
Before the architectural design begins, each school launches a six-month to one-year community engagement process that allows the community to take ownership of what the school will offer when construction work finishes.
This community engagement process involves a variety of partners, and each community develops a shared vision of academic programs, enrichment activities and support services for students, families and community members — before and after school; during the evenings and on weekends; as well as during the school year and summer months.
For example, Winton Hills Academy identified health concerns as a barrier to students' learning. As a result, they now partner with a pharmacy, a primary and oral-health care provider, and a full-time behavioral health clinic to provide services to their students and families.
Community Learning Centers are proven success stories. Benefits for students include: improved academic performance, higher attendance rates and greater parent involvement. One example is Winton Hills Academy — enrollment is up, discipline incidents are down dramatically, and the building hums daily with after-school and summer programming run by the YMCA. Four therapists and behavioral specialists from St. Aloysius Orphanage work daily in the school. Winton Hills earned national recognition when it was one of seven semifinalists for the 2007 Richard Riley Award for Schools as Centers of Community.
The community benefits as well — through access to family activities, adult programs and recreation; coordination of community resources to meet the social and economic needs of residents; and a heightened sense of community.