An Interview with PCAPS leader Evette Jones

Posted by on May 17, 2013

By Liz Shriver

In April, I met with Evette Jones, Community Engagement Coordinator with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and a leader in the Philadelphia Coalition for Public Schools (PCAPS). PCAPS is comprised of students, parents and teachers with an unwavering commitment to improving Philadelphia’s school system. PCAPS promoted a moratorium on school closings and is currently focused on a proactive platform to increase funding for Philadelphia schools, increase charter school accountability and promote community schools as a turnaround model. Ms. Jones discussed the promotion of the Community Schools model and what drives the goal of establishing schools as community hubs.

You can read more about efforts to promote community schools here: PCAPS Communty Schools Taskforce, PHENND Conference Keynote: Darlene Kamine , K-16 Partnerships Fall Speaker: Marty Blank

On May 2^nd, the Education First Compact hosted their monthly meeting in collaboration with PCAPS and hosted a ‘Community Schools Information Day’. They brought together leaders in Community Schools implementation:

Annie Bogenshutz– Director of Training and Development, The Community Learning Center Institute of Cincinnati

Lukas Weinstein– Director of Special Projects, The Children’s Aid Society, National Center for Community Schools

Shital Shah– Assistant Director, Educational Issues Department, American Federation of Teachers

During the Ed First Compact meeting and subsequent discussions led by PCAPS, leaders in the non-profit and university communities discussed the goals and potential barriers to establishing community schools in Philadelphia. Ms. Jones outlined for me the motivation to support community schools as a coalition. Each presenter highlighted that implementing community schools is a long-term strategy which can’t be done overnight but that Philadelphia may be in a good position to begin the process.

Q: What sparked PCAPS to take on advocating for Community Schools as a turnaround model?

A: After the school closings vote on March 7 where the SRC voted to close 23 schools effective June 30, 2013, PCAPS met again and decided that we were going to keep moving forward and establish a long-term agenda. We selected three platforms to focus on for the long term:

• State and local funding of public education
• Charter school accountability
• Community schools

As a teacher myself, I am interested in supporting this model and transforming our schools into community hubs. We really need to get the administration to buy in to this concept. Currently, there are some Philadlephia public schools that have the beginnings of a community  school. For example, Sayre High School, which has a community health clinic and strong partnerships with University of Pennsylvania. But we haven’t taken it to the point of a “true community school”.

Our goal is to work with the District, Dr. Hite and the SRC to find ways to truly invest in this. We’re particularly interested in this model in Cincinnati, where they’ve decreased their dropout rate and presently have an 83% high school graduation rate.

Q: How would PCAPS promote this idea in the community?

A: We have to educate the communities as to what is a community school and how it could benefit not only the children who attend that neighborhood school, but also benefit the community in and around the school.. We would like for the School District  to pilot the community school model in a few of our existing schools.  We would like for the district or outside funders to fund site coordinators in the schools identified as pilot schools.  Each school community can begin to assess their need and begin to bring partners together that can service the needs of the students as well as the community. Our goal is to  meet with representatives from major non-profit partners and universities to get them on board. We’re still in the beginning phases and we’d like to have a planning year.

On June 15^th we are going to host a conference. We will invite parents, teachers, para professionals as well as other school employees, principals, elected officials, community groups, students etc. to expose them to the community schools model. This way we can get them to go back into their schools and begin to develop this model.