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Robbinsdale highlights full‑service community schools model, says partners reached thousands
Summary
At its June 16 meeting, Robbinsdale Area Schools officials reported early results from a federally supported full‑service community schools program at three sites, listing health, mental‑health and basic‑needs services as top needs and describing partnerships that delivered dental care, meals and enrichment to students and families.
Robbinsdale Area Schools leaders on June 16 told the school board that a district effort to establish full‑service community schools at three sites has delivered a range of health, family‑engagement and enrichment services and reached thousands of students and families.
The presentation, led by Anthony Williams, executive director for community schools, reviewed how the district used a roughly $1,200,000 Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) federal pass‑through grant to create full‑time community‑school coordinator posts at Cooper High School, Robertsville (RMS) and Sandburg Learning Center and to form site leadership teams charged with asset mapping and needs assessments.
The needs assessments identified the top priorities for participating students and families as emotional and social well‑being, before‑ and after‑school enrichment, clothing and hygiene resources, health‑care services and academic assistance. "All of our staff was trained in youth mental health first aid," said Nyesha Smith, the full‑service community schools coordinator at Robertsville Middle School. "So we're all youth mental health first aid responders."
District officials described how partners supplied services directly in schools. Williams and coordinators said Ready, Set, Smile expanded from serving fewer than 20 students three years ago to reaching 327 students across six elementary schools this past year; staff reported the program identified 384 cavities, treated more than 204 of them and placed more than 275 sealants, and made multiple urgent and orthodontic referrals. Hennepin Health provided vaccines at family nights and before school; weekend meal‑bag delivery programs were used at several sites; and Tickets for Kids provided more than 600 free tickets for families to cultural and sporting events.
"Full service is the bridge to the village," said Lakeia McGahee, full‑service coordinator who has worked at Sandburg and Cooper, describing family‑engagement events such as bingo nights, winter wonderland celebrations and renters/homebuyer workshops. McGahee said the program also distributed more than 16,000 items (socks, hygiene items, clothing, school supplies and backpacks) over three years and recorded more than 5,632 event participants.
Officials said implementation requires site coordinators, a site leadership team and ongoing needs assessments; coordinators described enrichment offerings including tutoring in English and Spanish, financial literacy, culinary arts and debate programs. RMS reported a rookie team won the Minnesota Urban Debate League city championship during the year.
Board members asked whether every building could become a community school; Williams and Superintendent Ardelle Stallo said that is the long‑term goal but emphasized that a full‑service community school designation requires a full‑time on‑site coordinator and carries an ongoing staffing cost. Williams said the original MDE grant has ended and the district was funded for Cooper in a recent expansion award but not for the two middle schools; he said some partner services have been offered at little or no cost and that the district is working to sustain and expand services through internal and external partnerships and within the district strategic plan.
The presentation concluded with board members praising staff for the work and asking the presenters to continue integrating services as funding and staffing change.
District presenters provided the board with the coordinators' implementation descriptions, partner lists, and counts of students and services delivered; officials said they will continue follow‑up needs assessments and site leadership monitoring as the program evolves.
