The recent contract between the teacher’s union and the LAUSD contains a new provision that was worked on during the negotiations, and was reportedly not one of the union demands stated publicly. But it might, depending on one’s point of view, be the most significant change vehicle to come out of the strike and deal making..
Community Schools are a broadly defined term, but contain the potential for forming neighborhood co-ops for learning, healthcare, addressing social problems, and other issues of poverty that currently weigh on attempts to improve school performance in low-income areas.
The new provisions in the contract will:
Establish 30 campuses known as community schools, investing $350,000 in each one over two years. Such schools are supposed to provide social services to students and family, rich academic programs that include the arts and leadership roles for parents and teachers.
While 175K per year for two years, is not an enormous amount, one can envision things “getting off the ground”. What happens after that is of course TBD.
One possibility is that funding for Community Schools turns out to be an effective approach to giving disadvantaged kids an achievement promoting environment. Previously, the varied components of poverty have been hard to address one at a time, but they all are interconnected and may well be addressable as a whole through community schools.