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��Community Schools��Family-Community Resource Centers: �A strategy to promote hope, opportunity and agency��January 15, 2019

Vancouver Public Schools��

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Meaningful Outcomes

What is one challenge you wish to address?
What is one opportunity?
What do you hope to learn today?

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Outline

1:00 p.m. Welcome

1:15 p.m. Vancouver Public Schools: Our Call to Action and Strategic Plan

1:35 p.m. Family Engagement: Family-Community Resource Centers Part I

Spokane Team Activity

2:05 p.m. Break

2:15 p.m. Family Engagement: Family-Community Resource Centers Part II

Spokane Team Activity

2:45 p.m. Break

2:50 p.m. Facilities: Linking infrastructure to your Community School vision

3:20 p.m. Q&A

3:35 p.m. Next Steps for Spokane

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Our Community

Vancouver Public Schools

24,000 children and youth

37 schools and programs

58 square miles

16 elementary Title 1 school-wide sites

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Our district…

- Second largest school district in SW Wash., serving areas of both city and county (58 square miles)

- Nearly 24,000 children and youth enrolled at 37 schools and programs

Third largest employer in the county with more than 3,300 certificated and classified staff members

Our city…

-We are America’s Vancouver… the first Vancouver

Located directly across the Columbia River from Portland, OR
70,000+ commuters
Historically blue-collar, middle-class
Lost 15,000 manufacturing jobs in 1980s
Growth in lower-paying service sector and tech

Changes over the past 25 years…

- Suburban community facing rapid urbanization

Economic recovery after the Great Recession disproportionately left many behind
Highest rate of rental increase in the nation (families earning minimum wage must work 89 hours/week to rent a two-bedroom unit)
2% vacancy rate

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Our Students

24,000 enrolled
24% from homes where a language other than English is primary
46% eligible for subsidized meals
14% receive special education services
More than 600 qualify as homeless

Vancouver is an urban/suburban school system. We have several characteristics of a large-city district. Some of those include high levels of poverty and mobility—a combination that negatively impacts student achievement. Forty-six percent of our students are eligible for free- or reduced-price meals, a common metric of child poverty. That’s down from a peak of 57%, but it’s still high. More than 600 of our students qualify as homeless.

Poverty is not a learning disability, but it presents real barriers to student success. All children have three universal needs: to feel safe and secure, to feel loved and a sense of belonging and to feel competent and capable. Friends, this is basic stuff. If children are hungry, it impacts their ability to learn. If children don’t know where they’ll sleep tonight, it impacts their ability to learn.

And parents who face major life challenges, including financial insecurity, often find it difficult to be involved in their children’s education. But together, we are transforming lives. We are cultivating hope, opportunity and agency in our children and families.

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Achievement highlights

21-point increase in early kindergarten literacy
20-point decrease in 3^rd grade English language learner literacy gap
52% increase in 2^nd-5^th graders served by the Highly Capable program (since 2016)
180% increase in students of poverty enrolled in AP/IB courses (since 2007)

* Achievements occurred between 2010 and 2018 unless otherwise noted

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Achievement highlights

66% of juniors and seniors enrolled in dual credit courses while in high school
65% increase in students taking the SAT�(since 2014)
94% of high school students with no suspensions or expulsions
21-point increase of on-time graduation rate, from 64% to 85%

* Achievements occurred between 2010 and 2018 unless otherwise noted

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Our Vision: Design II, Chapter 2

Instructional Quality
Flexible Learning Environments
Programs of Choice
Early Learning
Family Engagement/Family-Community Resource Centers
Safe and Supportive Schools

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Education Week’s 2016 Leaders to Learn From

Steve Webb, Superintendent

Tom Hagley, Chief of Staff

Leaders to Learn From

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Integrated Student Supports

2016 Washington State Legislature SHB1541

Needs assessment
Community partners
Coordinated supports
Integrated services
Date driven decision-making

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Community Schools

Marshal the assets of an entire community to support the academic and non-academic needs of children and families.

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Family-Community Resource Centers

2008: VPS begins scaling school-based Family-Community Resource Centers

2018: 18 FCRCs and two mobile FCRCs

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Family Services

Identify and bridge barriers to students’ and families’ access to needed services

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Enrichment

Connect students to opportunities that enrich learning and expand students’ social capital

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Engagement

Build adult capacities to support student success

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Partners

Increase resources for family and community engagement, including academic and non-academic programs for students and families

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2017-18 School Year

3,052 C-Tran bus passes
640 hours of parent-child early learning classes
366 family engagement events
164 FCRC-organized student clubs, reaching 2,000 students
21,000 Friday Food Backpacks
100,000 pounds of fresh food
$500,000 in-kind goods
$7 million partner services

FCRC

Fantastic Facts

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Schools with Family-Community Resource Center experienced increase in engagement indicators

Attendance improved
Discipline infractions reduced
Mobility declined
Kindergarten readiness increased
Average annual growth on i-Ready reading assessment 16.5 points higher than unserved schools

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Scale FCRCs
Expand partnerships
Integrate student supports

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Build Capacity: When scaling up a community-schools initiative, make sure the district has capacity such as staffing and financial resources to do it well. It’s equally important to ensure that community partners also have the resources they need. Go slow to go fast!

Perfection Not Required: Do what’s possible with the given resources, even if it’s not a perfect replication of something that’s already showing success. Empower the people in charge at each school to be the connecting point for community partners, volunteers, and families. Perfection is the enemy of good.

Cultivate Engagement and Share Ownership: Start with a foundation of public support and board and executive sponsorship. A strong commitment at the board and executive levels can enable districts to make strategic investments despite limited resources and competing priorities. Not my vision, not the board’s vision, it’s the communities vision.

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RESOURCES

Community Schools: Standards http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/Page/Community-School%20Standards-2017.pdf
Community Schools: Whole Child Framework http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/Community-Schools-A-Whole-Child-Approach-to-School-Improvement.pdf

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The Village

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VANCOUVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Vancouver, Washington

Tom Hagley, Chief of Staff

Todd Horenstein, Assistant Superintendent, Facilities Support Services

Tamara Shoup, Interim Executive Director, School Supports

http://vansd.org/fcrc/