Justice in Community Schools: Organizing for Community Schools That Respond to Community Needs

• In Event: Community Schools Across Cities: At the Intersections of Inequity, Power, and Radical Possibilities

Abstract

In 2014, as a coordinating member of the Journey for Justice Alliance, Parents Unified for Local School Education (PULSE), a Newark-based parent-led organization, lobbied for Sustainable Community Schools as a fifth model under the federal government's School Improvement Grant school reform model. This came at the heels of Cami Anderson’s destructive reign within the Newark Public Schools, several school closures, a rapid influx of charter schools, and increasing protests and pushback from the community. Sharon Smith, will discuss what those years were like for the community of Newark, how PULSE organized on different fronts to fight for Sustainable Community Schools in Newark, NJ. It is important to note that the work around community schools was led by Black parents at a time where we were experiencing an increase in structural violence in our communities, schools, and other institutions. PULSE has been instrumental in organizing and raising public awareness around the negative impact of public school privatization, public school closings and co-location of public schools in communities of color. Sharon Smith believes that Sustainable Community Schools is the solution and offers a holistic approach in providing support and resources, not only to the students and the families of the community in which the institutions are located.

It helps to begin with a collaborative and participatory planning year before the community school is implemented, where administrators, teachers, counselors, nurses, and support staff are trained and included in the process. Currently PULSE has been commissioned to help facilitate the transition of the Belmont Runyon Schools into a Sustainable Community School which is focused on: Restorative practices, Transformative parental engagement, Less testing more teaching, Culturally relevant curriculum, Wrap-around services.

Author

• Sharon Smith, Parents Unified for Local School Education