Interesting story about an innovative school in Las Cruces, supported by Ngage, and other groups. The idea, often heard around PSA website, is that the schools are natural community centers and hubs for access to cloud tools, video production, adult learning, and other uses presently limited.
Apparently the idea that the schools are owned by the public, and therefore should be serving what the community wants them to serve, is catching on, as we learn “community schools” are a coming thing.
The vision for the community schools project, spearheaded by Ngage New Mexico, is to bring improved access to health and social services, youth and community development and educational opportunities into neighborhoods around Las Cruces by converting each of the district’s 41 school sites into community schools, open to everyone — all day, every day, including providing a variety of services on nights and weekends.
This story, about the NEA president who visited such a school in Las Cruces very recently, sketches out some of the vision involved, and some of what is now actually taking place. The timing of the visit by Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, is quite interesting, coming as it does at the end of the Obama administration, and the start of the Trump administration.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/NEA-president-visits-first-Las-Cruces-community-school.pdf”]