Los Banos Unified outlines Community Schools plan, seeks a Family Resource Center and hires liaisons

The Los Banos Unified School District presented a multi-year plan to implement California's Community Schools Partnership Program and approved temporary staff positions to begin the work.

Dr. Richie, the district's Community Schools coordinator, told the board the state grant and planning process created an opportunity to build a network of supports around students. "A community school is distinguished by its integrated focus," Richie said. "Everything is integrated together focusing on academics, youth development, family support, health and social services and community development." The presentation described four pillars for the program and said the district will pair site-based bilingual liaisons and social workers with a leased Family Resource Center that will act as a central hub for services.

Richie said the district has already hired the coordinator (who started Nov. 1) and plans to add six districtwide social workers and 15 bilingual site liaisons at school sites. The presentation described planned contracts or partnerships for dental, vision and women's-health clinics and said many services will be sustained through in-kind relationships with community-based organizations. Richie also described a required annual evaluation and state reporting framework for the grant-funded work.

Board members pressed for budget and sustainability details. Trustee Valo expressed concern that the indicated contracts appeared small relative to the services described, asking whether the budget matched the scope; Richie responded that many services are expected to be provided through in-kind partnerships and existing community grants rather than daily clinic contracts. "These are living documents," Richie said, adding the state requires annual reporting and the program will be adjusted as needs become clearer.

The board voted to approve a Community Schools liaison, site-based temporary job description and accompanying salary schedule, and separately approved an updated school social worker, site-based temporary job description. Both motions carried unanimously.

The community-schools presentation referenced a multi-year state implementation award; the presentation included a numeric grant figure that was unclear in the transcript. The district said 15 of 16 schools are included in the initial rollout (one school fell below an unduplicated-pupil threshold) and that families at the excluded site will still be able to access services through the Family Resource Center.

Next steps the district outlined included finalizing a Family Resource Center lease and equipment plan, hiring the liaisons and social workers, convening a district CCPP steering committee and launching an advisory council (applications to be accepted through Feb. 3) to guide service design and sustainability planning. Richie said two town-hall events will be held (an in-person meeting at Westside Elementary and a virtual meeting the following day) to explain the advisory-council application and gather community input.

The board requested periodic updates; trustees asked for follow-up on provider contracts, staffing costs and the grant'period sustainability plan. The district said it will return with more detailed schedules, job descriptions and site-level plans as hires and contracts are finalized.