Question and Answer Interview with Norma Puente, senior in Margaret Ling Wisdom high school in Houston, Texas

Q: Tell me about the demographics of your school.

A: Latino community school, low income, high income, our school has done food distributors throughout the week. We communicate through twitter, Instagram, we have also been doing chrome distributions

Q: What has your school been doing to deal with COVID-19?

A: They are passing hotboxes for students without…

Kevin Martinez: Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP)- Morningside High School

Interviewed by: Aqsa Rashid

Before Kevin Martinez became a community school coordinator, Morningside High School was experiencing tremendous student turnover. In one year alone, 16,000 students dropped to 8,000. Morningside is one of two high schools…

When Stacy Darga first moved to Sun Prairie, Westside Elementary had its share of challenges. Of the nine elementary schools in the city, Westside had the highest number of students on free and reduced lunches then, and it still does today. It is a school of high poverty and many have unreliable access to transportation as there is currently no public transit system within Sun Prairie. For some of these reasons, with initial grant funding obtained, Westside Elementary became one of the first…

Written by Justine Mariscal

Built on the foundation of collaborative leadership, the Pawtucket School Department and the Pawtucket Teachers’ Alliance have worked together to promote the community school model in the city over the last three years. Pawtucket’s efforts are supported by the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (HRFTHP) along with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), who have partnered with the Pawtucket community schools team on establishing…

Written by Justine Mariscal

When the Mayor’s Office of Education (MOE) in Philadelphia partnered with the School District of Philadelphia to implement Community Schools, Edward Gideon Elementary School was part of the first cohort to make the shift in 2016. The school, which serves K-8th graders in North Philadelphia, is now entering its fourth year as a Community School and its Coordinator, Gregory Wright, has been with the school throughout the whole process.

In order to best…

Written by Justine Mariscal

When taking on his role three years ago as coordinator for Fort Worthington Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland, Justin Hunt was faced with challenges of having to merge three different school cultures and communities into one building. This was an intricate task in a city where the culture of each community changes from block to block. When an overflow of three hundred students showed up on the first day, Hunt knew that he had to do some…

Thank you for a successful Coordinators Appreciation Week! With your help, we celebrated the amazing work Community School Coordinators do for their schools and their community on social media by using #CoordinatorsRock. Here are some of our favorite post shared this year highlighting the positive impact and influence that coordinators have.

1. Mayor's Office of Education Video of Coordinators receiving thank you letters…