McKinley’s 125th Birthday Celebration took place on November 23. All in attendance had a chance to play trivia games, receive free books, eat cupcakes, decorate bookmarks, order McKinley’s 125th Birthday T-shirts, have their face painted, explore the time line, and even put their name in a cake raffle by donating canned goods. Performances by the William Allen JROTC program and Chorale highlighted the evening. Along with all of these highlights, we were fortunate to have many community members in attendance, including Dr. Mayo, acting superintendent, and several members of the school board. In addition, some distinguished alumni were in our midst, including four individuals who attending McKinley during the 1930’s. It was inspiring to see their lasting school spirit, and to be able to share their legacy and example with current McKinley students and families. In attendance were 61 parents, 89 McKinley students, 10 other children, 12 community participants, 17 staff volunteers, 3 parent volunteers, 16 community volunteers, and 10 youth volunteers, for a total of 217 participants. An extra THANK YOU to all of the volunteers who made this event possible! McKinley Staff and Faculty, Community Members, NJROTC students, William Allen Chorale, to Sue Williams for taking photos, and many friends gave time to prepare, set up, run the event, and clean up. A special thanks to Christ Lutheran for generously opening their facility to us for this great event! AND, Mark your CALENDARS for McKinley’s next BIG event: McKinley Holiday Potluck and Craft Night Thursday, December 15th, 5:30-8:00pm Christ Lutheran Church COMPASS Community Schools United Way’s Community Partners for Student Success (COMPASS) partnership links 10 area schools with their communities in ways that are giving public education in the Lehigh Valley resources and support that is crucial during these tough economic times. COMPASS provides funding, convenes partners to identify systems-level strategies to support youth succeeding in school, connects resources and programs to school sites to support enhanced school day learning, assists with on-site coaching and training to support implementation of the Community School model and collects and analyzes data to monitor progress of this systems level work. COMPASS Community Schools have experienced tremendous growth in family and community involvement, improvements in academic performance for individual students, and improved school climate.
On the national level, the Community School model has garnered significant attention following the appointment of Arne Duncan as the U.S. Secretary of Education. As the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Secretary Duncan utilized the strategy to create more than 150 Community Schools in high need neighborhoods and has since championed the strategy as an innovative approach to supporting schools across the country. Endorsement of the Community Schools model via the national Coalition for Community Schools has been received from more than 170 national, state, and local organizations, including the two largest teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.
Community Schools seek to organize programs and services into one place, creating “one stop shopping” for students and families. These programs and services are designed to remove barriers to learning, create positive youth development opportunities, empower parents to strengthen their role as partners in education, and to use the community as a living textbook.
To learn more about Community Schools, visit http://www.communityschools.org
