NJ.com - 05-06-2015 -  Newark's schools should add more social services and community programming to tackle issues of poverty afflicting local neighborhoods, a group of education advocates said Tuesday.

Dubbed the "community school" model, schools should strive to address needy students' health and emotional needs, teach content beyond what is included in standardized tests and include parental input in the decision making.

NJ Communities United organizer Roberto Cabanas told a packed audience in Kings Family Restaurant & Catering, that the district could work local nonprofit organizations to support a wider range of student needs.

"We need to bring the village inside of the school," he said.

Cabanas was one of four panelists at an education forum organized by activists and the city, including Newark chief education officer Lauren Wells, Evie Frankl of the Center for Popular Democracy and Mary Bennett of the Alliance for Newark Public Schools.

Wells said Newark Public Schools once adopted this approach about five years ago through the Global Village Zone, when the district attempted to turn around seven schools in the city's Central Ward.

At the time, the district announced that the program would implement longer days and provide more professional development and pay for teachers. Under the model, schools were set to turn schools into a place where students would be taught but also be able to go to health clinics.

"A community school is a place, a physical place, but it's also a practice," Wells said. "It is a way about going about doing things."

The program also sought input from teachers and parents when it designed it, Wells said.

"Teachers, specifically, at 18th Avenue School worked with the principal to design what (an) extended day would look like in their school," she said.

Bennett said when she was a principal in the district she tried to better serve students on probation by working with the county probation department to have one probation officer assigned to all the students in her school.

Under the community schools model, the district could streamline cooperation between government and universities, Bennett argued.

"You shouldn't have to spend a year to try and unify the services to support students," she said.

Frankl said districts around the country including in Baltimore, New York City and Lancaster, Pennsylvania are adopting this approach.

"Community schools can happen," she said. "There is no reason why a community school should not be the definition of a public school in the United States of America."

Source: NJ.com