Mission, Libby, Laurel elementary schools and Jefferson Middle School in Oceanside have all become community schools.
Mercedes Lovies of the Oceanside Unified School district said the idea of community schools is being embraced across the state and the country. "The idea behind it is that our schools are the heart of our communities, and that by making sure that we invest in our communities through our schools and remove barriers, especially in areas where people experience poverty or are under resourced, that we put those resources in and we remove those barriers," she said.
The move is part of the $3 billion California Community Schools Partnership Program. Grants for community schools will be available to all school districts this month.
But Lovie said Oceanside didn’t want to wait, and set aside funds to roll out the program at the beginning of this year.
It included hiring a community school coordinator for each of the 4 community schools.
“They are from the community. They are leaders, they are managers and what their role really is, is to reach out to parents and build the capacity for the parents to be able to access those resources and also build more connections between our community resources and our schools," she said.
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Lovie said coordinators will work with parents and community partners to expand services to students.
Some of the expanded services will be offered at a new wellness center that will be coming to Jefferson Middle School.
“This wellness center will be around healthy eating, mindfulness, being able to have better exercise. It'll be an opportunity to learn about some of the challenges people experience who are dependent on substances, help students avoid becoming dependent on substances. So that's one," she said. "You'll see more health clinics, a dental screening clinic. Again bringing that right into the school.”
Nataly Sanchez, a parent at Libby Lake elementary and president of the Parent Teacher Organization, has already met with Libby’s community school coordinator and plans to get more parents and community members involved in the conversations.
“I personally have a lot of friends that don’t have students that go there anymore, but I know would love to participate. So hopefully we get enough parents and community members to join and make the difference," she said.
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Sanchez hopes bringing more sports to the schools will be a part of the community school plan. “Sports... obviously is a big change for students. We don’t live in a very nice neighborhood so we try to distract these kids from everything else and I think that having all these programs on campus will help the students and the families,” she said.
Sanchez is excited to see the community schools grow and thinks it's a good way for the district to build trust with Oceanside parents.
