# data[].attributes.headline
Assess the needs of the community to transform the community

# data[].attributes.subject
Assess the needs of the community to transform the community

# data[].attributes.body
Every chapter/department is uniquely essential; therefore, assessing the needs of each community by hosting town halls, focus groups, and listening sessions would help build rapport, increase engagement, and create meaningful impact that transforms lives and communities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Pickleball at our Racine Community School

# data[].attributes.subject
Pickleball at our Racine Community School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Inside Racine's Knapp Elementary, Wednesday is pickleball day.

"Given that I'm the basketball coach in the building, too, I'm used to the kids asking me about that in the hallways," explained Zyaire Strowder, community school coordinator at Knapp. "It quickly transitioned to pickleball, so I was like 'Okay, there's a need here' so maybe I need to up my role here and provide more opportunities."

Strowder, or as her students call here, Coach Z, says the idea for an afterschool pickleball club came up during a brainstorming session with a colleague.

"Me and my supervisor were just sitting down and just talking about other community schools that we visited and all of the things that they offer," Strowder said. "We made a little joke about pickleball because, I think we saw Jamie Foxx was playing or something. It was like an awkward moment of silence, but then we were like, 'Maybe we should see if we can give that to our kids."

That awkward silence Strowder mentioned turned into a conversation with the Racine Area Pickleball Club, who, along with pickleball pro and Racine native Zane Navratil, donated balls and paddles for the kids to use.

"United Way purchased a net. I asked our kids if they wanted to try it," Strowder recalled. "They had no clue what it was but they were like 'Yeah! If you're the coach, let's do it."

Just like that, the former division one basketball player is now a pickleball coach.

"People think of a coach, like obviously, some kind of expert who can give you real, true skill and knowledge of a sport," laughed Strowder. "I think by me being honest with the kids and telling them 'Hey, I'm learning too' or 'That drill is hard, I struggle with that' I kind of like, you know, show them that I'm a human too and I make mistakes as well."

That's what's important to Strowder; the kids having the ability to have fun and make mistakes while learning.

"Being in this community, there aren't a lot of, I guess, areas where the kids can actually express themselves in like a safe way and actually try new things," Strowder said. "It's important that we find ways to bring those things into the school, because this is already a place that they trust, and they love and they come to every day."

For a half hour after school every Wednesday, the new basketball turned pickleball coach sets up the donated net and breaks out the donated paddles and balls to help guide the elementary-aged students through different drills focused on teaching them the sport of pickleball, which continues to grow by the millions each year.

The group is typically made up of about ten students, including third grader Aniya Williams and fifth grader Jordan Johnson.

"You have to hit the ball softly so it don't go out," explained Williams. "(Coach Z) is a good coach and she teaches us a lot of stuff."

"She teaches us drills. First, we would like hit the wall with the pickleball and try hitting it for about 30 seconds," added Johnson "We do some wall sits and we would do the same thing. Try to balance it on the other pickleball racket."

While some student's skillsets are more fitting for the game than others, not one student in the gym could be seen without a smile on their face as they continue to practice and learn the new sport, and learn life lessons from Coach Z along the way, something important to Strowder.

"It is great to see them advance on a physical level within a sport, but just mentally, that's where I'm most proud," Strowder said. "I hear some of the things that they say throughout the day, and they'll catch me and are like 'Hey, I had a hard time earlier, I remember you told me that I can do it, so I got through it, and I feel good.' That makes me feel great as a person. Okay, wow, these kids are listening and it's important that I'm instilling the correct things in them because they're going to carry it with them everywhere that they go."

Coach Z has intentions to carry on the pickleball lessons to Mitchell Elementary in Racine, too, although she couldn't provide specifics as to when that might happen. She did add that the schools need more paddles to be able to allow more kids to play, with several students currently having to share.

As the club continues to grow, Strowder is grateful for the lessons being learned by the students and by the coach.

"They're extremely amazing children. I have a blast hanging out with them," Strowder said. "There's times when I'm tired and I don't really want to come to work but then I get to think about those children, right, and hang out with them, spend my lunch with them, see what's going on and it just kind of makes it worth it. When I'm also provided opportunities to lift some of the barriers that they're facing in this area, I just feel really good about myself as a person, and I just want to continue to do it."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
racine news; kenosha news; washington news; sheboygan news; waukesha news; ozaukee news; walworth news; milwaukee news;  milwaukee weather; sports; traffic; brewers;  bucks; packers; telemundo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'There's a need here:' After-school pickleball teaches lessons about the sport, life

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Inside Racine's Knapp Elementary, Wednesday is pickleball day. "Given that I'm the basketball coach in the building, too, I'm used to the kids asking me about that in the ha

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQNfCyFwSZo&pp=ygUoeW91IHR1YiBtYWtlcnNwYWNlIHN0ZXZlbnNvbiBlbGVtZW50YXJ5eQ%3D%3D

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Southfield's Stevenson Elementary has one-of-a-kind STEM classroom

# data[].attributes.body
Who is leading statewide coalitions in addition to supporting local community school strategies?

# data[].attributes.headline
UW-specific events @ national convenings

# data[].attributes.subject
UW-specific events @ national convenings

# data[].attributes.body
Could UWW pull us together for dinner, receptions, breakout sessions at the national convenings like CSxFE?

# data[].attributes.headline
Who has creative logos to use or newer videos to use for Community Schools?

# data[].attributes.subject
Who has creative logos to use or newer videos to use for Community Schools?

# data[].attributes.body
More information on how to create and maintain logic models and strategic plans.

# data[].attributes.headline
Finding time to do anything (workout, watch a show, take the dog for a walk) by myself.

# data[].attributes.subject
Finding time to do anything (workout, watch a show, take the dog for a walk) by myself.

# data[].attributes.headline
How can they champion Community Schools as an organization wide strategy that other strategies can fit under? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How can they champion Community Schools as an organization wide strategy that other strategies can fit under? 

# data[].attributes.body
Figuring out how all the partners play into the various pillars and what specifically they can contribute to the work as well as to the schools depending on their role within the community.

# data[].attributes.headline
Videos and short literature to explain Community Schools.

# data[].attributes.subject
Videos and short literature to explain Community Schools.

# data[].attributes.body
I am always looking for logos, simple videos, and branding when sharing to new funders and schools we want to grow into

# data[].attributes.body
When there are Community Schools initiatives that are doing really well, can we publish more "Best Practices" with a step by step how to guide on how to implement similar practices.

Baseline Data:

Asset mapping and figuring out how it compares to other localities

How to develop One Pagers that can be shared with community partners

Seeing how other United Ways present their information on CS.

# data[].attributes.headline
Who has a UW Resource Development champion?

# data[].attributes.subject
Who has a UW Resource Development champion?

# data[].attributes.body
List of United Way Affiliates associated with Community Schools work from across the country and

How new are they to the CS work?

How developed are they with CS work and how long have they been involved?

What role the UW affilate plays in the CS work (funder, partner, backbone org. etc.)

# data[].attributes.body
Interactive map of Community Schools stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Community schools are public schools that partner with families and community organizations to provide well-rounded educational opportunities and supports for students' school success. Like every good school, community schools must be built on a foundation of powerful teaching that includes challenging academic content and supports students' mastery of 21st century skills and competencies.

A community school strategy transforms a school into a place where educators, local community members, families, and students work together to strengthen conditions for student learning and healthy development. As partners, they organize in-and-out of school resources, supports, and opportunities so that young people thrive.

The most comprehensive community schools are academic and social centers, where educators, families, and neighbors come together to support innovative learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Community schools are public schools that partner with families and community organizations to provide well-rounded educational opportunities and supports for students' school success. Like every good school, community schools must be built on a foundation of powerful teaching that includes challenging academic content and supports students' mastery of 21st century skills and competencies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A new early literacy initiative based on the practices of the world's top education systems has led ... [+]
getty

For more than 100 years, Knapp Elementary has served students in its Racine, WI neighborhood. Today, of its 465 students, 85% are considered economically disadvantaged. More than half of parents lack a high school credential and neighborhood violence is a challenge. Proficiency rates have hovered between 8% and 12%.

It has long been one of the district's most challenged schools.

Six years ago, Rich Wytonick became principal of Knapp. He worked to strengthen the instructional team and bring in community partners. As a result, Knapp was the first community school in the district-partnering with The United Way to provide wraparound services for students.

"We were really bringing the right people in, changing the culture," Wytonick explained. "We felt we were on the precipice of improvement. Then COVID hit."

As with many other low-income communities of color, the Knapp school community felt disproportionate impacts from the pandemic. School preparedness declined from its already typically low levels. First graders didn't know their alphabet, or have any early literacy skills to speak of.

Fortunately, at the same time that Knapp was dealing with these challenges, the district was rolling out its new early literacy initiative based on the practices of the world's top education systems. Wytonick and assistant principal Melissa Damaschke worked with their instructional team to remake the school's early literacy teaching practices. The primary strategies gleaned from high performing systems abroad included a laser-like focus on student level data, formative assessment and diagnostics, and new types of instructional differentiation and teacher collaboration to improve instruction.

"We took the approach of plan, study, act," explains Damaschke. "We knew that almost everyone was below proficiency level, so instead of taking 3 kids to a small group for our weekly response to intervention blocks, we look at our data, move students to specific classrooms where teachers are teaching either well below grade level, below grade level or at grade level. We as leaders do classroom rounds twice a day. We talk about our data every week."

Wytonick and his team were also able to marry the strengths of their community school's system of support with the remaking of the work of teachers. Family engagement events incorporated early literacy elements, the school launched a Readers Make Leaders positive behavioral intervention program to celebrate students successes, and the use of interdisciplinary teams for student wellbeing meant a spirit of collaboration was already present in the school. That combination of access to needed social services and a professionalized approach to teaching are hallmarks of schools in high-performing systems like Finland and Singapore. The results for Knapp Elementary have been inspiring.

The class that had largely missed Kindergarten due to COVID ended first grade in the spring of 2022. Just 4 percent read on grade level. One year later, in the spring of 2023, the number of students meeting benchmarks in reading had jumped to 42 percent, a better than tenfold increase. Kindergartners and K4 early childhood learners are making similarly impressive gains. The building is now buzzing with optimism-even teachers in upper grades.

"Everyone is excited about it-seeing the growth in the younger grades," explained Wytonick. "Now my 4th and 5th grade teachers are saying, 'Oh, wow, look what's coming!' Having half of your students on grade level instead of just a handful changes the way you can teach."

The school plans to roll out the strategies schoolwide in the 2023-2024 school year, expanding monthly assessments and reading supports up through grade 5.

"We used to be at the bottom of the district." noted Damaschke. "Now we're pushing toward the top in some grade levels."

As the Knapp Elementary work continues, Wytonick and his team are clear about the distance they have left to run to deliver fully for all students.

But the progress is impressive for the school and trajectory-altering for its students-not a small feat in early literacy, an area of learning that has long been fraught with frustration in U.S. education.

Wytonick and the Knapp ES team are making the kind of moves that are not just worth celebrating, but also learning from- deeply.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How One Elementary School In Wisconsin Is Solving The Early Literacy Challenge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Knapp Elementary has long been one of the district's most challenged schools. So how did this school achieve a ten-fold increase in early literacy levels since COVID?

# data[].attributes.body
UW Board Engagment

# data[].attributes.body
At this meeting, Ayeola Fortune, Vice President, Impact Team and Shannon D. Reed, National Director, Young Men United from United World Wide, joined us to talk about the recent Global Impact Practice Survey results and discussed how to advance Community Schools in this work.

# data[].attributes.headline
Leading with Purpose and Passion: A Guide for Community School Directors

# data[].attributes.subject
Leading with Purpose and Passion: A Guide for Community School Directors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
United Way/ Community Schools Perpetual Calendar

# data[].attributes.body
Nonprofits partner with schools to spotlight chronic absenteeism (idahoednews.org)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nonprofits partner with schools to spotlight chronic absenteeism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The organizations are advocating for a sea change when it comes to school attendance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With every haircut, trim, and shape-up, students at Julian Thomas Elementary School were gaining confidence by the second.

RACINE — With every haircut, trim, and shape-up, students at Julian Thomas Elementary School were gaining confidence by the second.

"It looks super cool," said third-grader, Audrac Johnson.

"I look nice," exclaimed fourth-grader, Arvan Johnson.

Recently, the elementary school teamed up with United Way of Racine County, along with stylists and barbers from Gateway Technical College, to offer free haircuts for students. The idea came after staff had noticed there was a need to provide access to hygiene products and hair care to some children.

"I think hair plays a big role in everybody's self-esteem and how they feel about themselves," said Julian Thomas Elementary School community school coordinator, Katie Tuttle.

Leanna Johnson, a mom of three, says she knows all too well what it's like to not be able to keep up with her kids' needs all the time.

"I am one of those parents. We get really busy working our 40 hour weeks. Having this and having access to it in our school, in our community, is so important," said Johnson.

Which is why she, along with the more than 50 plus parents who signed their children up to get a haircut, were grateful for Tuesday's event.

"I think my boys look great, they have different hair types and I think that the stylist did really great," said Johnson.

And the smiles spoke for themselves.

Report a typo or error // Submit a news tip

Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sign up for our new TMJ4 Morning Headlines Newsletter and get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
‘Spring is in the Hair’ event offers free haircuts to students at Racine elementary school

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Julian Thomas Elementary School teamed up with United Way of Racine County, along with stylists and barbers from Gateway Technical College, to offer free haircuts for students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Community schools emerged in the Greater Salt Lake City region of Utah in the mid-2000s beginning with the Salt Lake School District. Today, there are approximately 30 community schools throughout the Greater Salt Lake City region. Along the way, organizations like United Way of Salt Lake alongside StriveTogether, National Center for Community Schools at Children's Aid, and the Coalition for Community Schools supported the success of subsequent schools. The United Way of Salt Lake is part of a larger national effort of United Ways around the U.S. playing a key role in catalyzing growth of community schools by providing oversight, resources, initiative management, contract management, and more, often as organizations . United Way of Salt Lake aligns partners and resources toward community schools as part of an integrated roadmap to "build powerful collective impact partnerships in schools, communities, and across our region and innovate the way people, organizations, and systems work together."

Amy Ahrens Terpstra became Chief Impact Officer for United Way of Salt Lake in order to cultivate collaborative partnerships in schools, neighborhoods, and across the region, including community schools . Terpstra says, "In the coming year, we have a plan to build more formal collaboration among community schools staff throughout our district feeling like a part of the same team, part of a learning community. Our goal is to establish a feeling of solidarity through shared purpose in the community schools strategy."

As public funding expands, insights from leaders in places like the Greater Salt Lake region that have successfully leveraged local partnerships and family engagement can inform how schools everywhere can transform to serve young people and local communities.

Community schools meet the moment we are in-addressing COVID-19-related impacts, as well as ongoing challenges to equity in education by bringing together the best possibilities of what public education can offer. The Greater Salt Lake City Region provides strategic insights for decisionmakers interested in how community schools can transform academic outcomes through strong family engagement and sustained collaboration-in this case, collaboration benefitting from a vibrant civil society that shares accountability for outcomes while working on similar goals using data-driven decisionmaking. Although there is no single programmatic "model" for how community schools work and no one pathway for scaling the strategy, below we share four key insights from community school leaders like Ahrens that can be broadly applied everywhere to seize this critical moment in time.

1. 'Promise partners' build momentum toward academic results.

United Way of Salt Lake convenes a group of community, business, civic, education, government, and philanthropic partners called the Promise Partnership Regional Council (PPRC). By building on the vibrant civil society in the area, place-based partnerships and private-public collaboration serve as a strong foundation for community schools in the region. Partners share a high level of accountability for student success as they challenge themselves to "move from talk to action."

Data from the PPRC's 2020 "Results Matter" report show that investing in these meaningful partnerships can build momentum toward academic results. Five out of eight baseline outcomes have improved at a regional level since they began tracking the indicators in 2014. Kindergarten readiness increased by 3 percent in numeracy; eighth grade math proficiency increased by 8 percent; and high school graduation increased by 5 percent for all students. Postsecondary readiness (a composite ACT score of 18+) increased by 4 percent and postsecondary completion measures increased by 5 percent in the Utah higher education institutions in the region.

2. Family engagement strategies are critical to strong, full-service community schools.

Family engagement is foundational to successful community schools, and the Granite School District has invested staff time in family engagement strategies. Jadee Talbot, an educator and former principal who is now Granite School District's director of Family and Community Engagement, is driven by a deep respect for the role of parents and families. Research has shown that deep collaboration between families and schools is essential to transforming and improving education systems . Talbot says, "Community Schools can't solely be about service provision. You have to ask how the school is developing ways for families to learn, engage, and create a support system for students."

Talbot has shaped the district's family engagement strategy through participation in the Flamboyan Foundation's Belonging Schools Initiative and by using Karen Mapp's Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships . Talbot describes the process that emerged from that work: "It comes down to having meaningful, trusting relationships with families that go beyond words of welcome. We don't just say we're welcoming, we have to audit our practices and answer the question of we are welcoming."

Talbot also observed that during the pandemic, strong family engagement continued to support positive academic outcomes: "Transitioning into distance learning was hard on everyone, but many community schools had already established constant two-way communication with families so they felt welcome, tuned into their children's basic needs, and empowered to play a role in their education. Parents in those schools were more proactive in reaching out to get help before a report card came in, which helped everyone make it through distance learning."

3. Family engagement creates enriched learning opportunities for students and

Granite School District has 106 different languages spoken within the district. Dora Ramirez, family and community outreach center coordinator, runs events and programs through the district's community engagement center that helps parents learn how to teach their kindergarten children basics-like how to write their full name and to know their parents' or family members' names.

For Ramirez, the secret is steering parent participation toward a sense of shared responsibility. She describes how she engages families in this context: "We want parents to feel a part of the school. It doesn't matter what language a parent speaks; the more involved the parents are in the school, the better their kids do." She has noticed that when a child sees their parent and their teacher working well together, they interpret the adults to be friends and allies, and this motivates the child to learn and achieve greater results in the classroom.

In Talbot's view, prioritizing family engagement has helped adult dispositions to shift dramatically "from an at-odds mentality to seeing both sides and recognizing the value they play." For example, when a mother was worried about her kid who was struggling with literacy, she was able to reach out to the family engagement team. The team connected her with the student's teacher. Together, they formed a kindergarten moms' group that would meet and work on at-home activities to support their children's learning. The group grew from two to six moms, and the student was soon among the top three in his class in literacy.

4. Scaling up requires bringing public funding to community schools efforts.

Over time and especially during the pandemic, Talbot has seen funds used to close family engagement gaps and create equitable opportunities in schools. Examples include funding to ensure that every young person who wants to attend summer school can do so; dual immersion programs that came about through identifying needs through data and listening to communities; home visits; and all-day kindergarten.

Terpstra believes funding must dramatically expand so community schools strategies can scale up: "We need to think a lot more about how private funders and organized intermediaries can catalyze public investment for what we know works. ... We are a drop in the bucket compared to public funding." United Way of Salt Lake has had some success in bringing public funding to community schools since 2016 by encouraging the Utah State Legislature to contribute funds to community school and cross sector partnership work. And in 2021, Utah received an infusion of $205 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for K-12 schools.

Community schools all over the U.S. are considering how to best fund the planning, implementation, and expansion of the strategy. As public funding expands , insights from leaders in places like the Greater Salt Lake region that have successfully leveraged local partnerships and family engagement can inform how schools everywhere can transform to serve young people and local communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Community schools in Utah's Salt Lake City region thrive on place-based partnerships and family engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Community schools emerged in the Greater Salt Lake City region of Utah in the mid-2000s beginning with the Salt Lake School District. Today, there are approximately 30 community schools throughout the Greater Salt Lake City region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
United Way, Erie School District to bring community school model to 5 more buildings

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Plan calls for Grover Cleveland, Joanna Connell, Jefferson and Lincoln elementary schools and Woodrow Wilson Middle School to become community schools

# data[].attributes.body
2024 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference May 29-31 in Atlanta, GA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2024 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference