Community Schools Like M.A. Lynch Elementary Becoming More Popular
By Lily Raff / The Bulletin
Published: July 15, 2010
Just a few blocks from my home in Bend, Amity Creek Magnet School has all it takes to entertain summer-loving kids: a lush field, shiny new playground equipment and a basketball court. But you won’t find children there now. A locked chain-link fence keeps anyone from setting foot on the property until September.
Compare this to M.A. Lynch Elementary School, in Redmond, where this week I saw families picnicking and frolicking on the school grounds.
The difference is just one reflection of Lynch’s special status as a “Community School,” which turns it into an all-hours gathering place. There’s an on-site health clinic for children and teens, tutoring for students, social services for families, even continuing education classes for adults, though programs are scaled back during the summer.
Community schools are becoming more common around the country. And thanks to a local group with $1 million to spend, a handful of Central Oregon schools will soon be converted into similar hubs.
Two years ago, I wrote about how the Oregon Community Foundation, to commemorate its endowment topping the $1 billion mark, gave $1 million to each of the state’s eight regions. Volunteers from each region were asked to identify a local problem and then dole out the money to solve it.
Volunteers from Central Oregon (Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler counties) honed in on community schools as a flexible way to meet a slew of needs.
“They allow us to reach out to entire communities, from preschool through retirement age,” explains Linda Moore, a member of the committee.
This summer, the group handed out its first three grants, worth a total of $202,800, to help turn Sisters’ elementary, middle and high schools, Redmond’s Vern Patrick Elementary School, and elementary schools in Fossil, Mitchell and Spray into full-bore community schools. The schools must raise additional money from other sources, and OCF will hand out more next year.
Before deciding to fund community schools, the group studied Lynch Elementary, which, in 2007, became the first local community school.
With roughly 20 percent of its students speaking English as a second language, Lynch used to struggle to meet federal standards. In 2007, just 29 percent of the school’s English Language Learners met or exceeded standards for math, compared with 63 percent school-wide. Today, Lynch boasts a passing rate of 88 percent among ELL students and 87 percent overall. One secret? Teachers get paid to spend time before and after school working with students who lag behind.
“It used to be that to get extra help, a student had to leave the classroom during the day and miss the core class,” says Desiree Margo, the school’s new principal.
The only additional cost to the district — covered by grants, though not from OCF — is the extra teaching time and the salary of a community school coordinator, Nate Muñoz.
The health clinic and mental health resources are funded by the county but are now housed inside the school. Head Start is, too, so preschool and kindergarten teachers can meet to get children on track right away.
Private partnerships provide other opportunities. The Boys and Girls Club is located on campus. Gymnastics, soccer and chess are offered after school. The list goes on.
Individual community members are encouraged to share their skills with students, too. Local artist Annie Painter, for example, led art projects and advised teachers during the school year, after budget cuts eliminated music, art and physical education specialists.
“The community seems to be really comfortable in the school,” Painter observes. “They’re using it and they feel like it’s theirs.”
As more local schools adopt this philosophy in coming years, who knows, maybe some padlocks will be removed.
That’s the million-dollar idea, anyway.