El Monte City School District launches five-year community schools rollout with new site leads

Superintendent Dr. Garcia and district staff on May 12 unveiled the El Monte City School District's year-one implementation of a five-year state community schools grant, introducing five newly hired community school leads and a framework for site-level planning.

In a presentation led by Francisco Royo, the community schools team said the model will pair each site with an advisory committee of parents, students, teachers, classified staff, administrators and community partners to identify priorities such as health services, mental-health supports, enrichment and expanded learning. "We're going to listen and learn," Royo said, describing a three-meeting rollout at each site that moves from building shared understanding to reviewing data and then planning strategic investments.

Why it matters: The district is using the grant to invest in the "whole child," aiming to bring services that already exist at district family centers into individual school sites. Royo said the work will be supported by county and state technical-assistance centers and that the first-year focus is on onboarding, committee formation and data-driven priority-setting.

District leaders gave examples of how site committees will work: teams will review student well-being and site surveys, identify gaps, and set fiscal priorities through a consensus-based protocol so schools can allocate their site-level community schools budgets. At Frank Wright School, a parent, teacher, assistant principal and a seventh-grade student described the committee process as "eye-opening," saying it helped parents and students contribute to decision-making and surface needs staff had not previously considered.

The team said the five-year grant covers work across 14 school sites and that two additional hires will expand the team to seven leads. Christina Davila, the Jeff Seymour Family Center's executive administrator (appearing via pre-recorded video), framed community schools as an opportunity to "work together with parents, students, staff, admin, and community partners" to support academic, social, emotional and physical needs.

What happens next: Royo said sites will continue committee meetings through the summer and into the next academic year to complete site plans and begin service coordination. The district also plans multiple engagement pathways (surveys, town halls, focus groups) so families and students can shape local priorities. Board members said the presentation answered long-standing questions about implementation and recommended continued subcommittee work on outcomes and metrics.

The board did not take any formal action on the community schools presentation; staff will return with implementation milestones and metric proposals in coming months.