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Plan would allow schools to transition to community learning centers

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: April 23, 2014

One of the joint sponsors of House Bill 460 has said the proposed legislation would develop a way for schools to be a focal point in local communities and reach out to individuals in need.

The bill would permit school districts and community schools to transition school buildings that meet certain lower performance criteria into a community learning center to participate in a coordinated, community-based effort with community partners to offer educational, developmental, family and health services to students and community members.

The measure is sponsored by Reps. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, and Denise Driehaus, D-Cincinnati.

Brenner testified before the House Education committee that he and Driehaus drafted the measure after visiting Oyler School in Cincinnati.

“I was impressed with the program that this school established and set out to work with Rep. Driehaus to extend this program to all parts of the state,” he said.

“This community learning center program is an intuitive program that will allow community leaders, teachers, parents and students (to) become engaged in their school restructuring process.”

The bill would require a school district or community school that initiates the community learning center process to have public hearings and take a vote among parents, guardians, teachers and nonteaching employees on whether to initiate the process.

Brenner said the process requires that at least half of parents and guardians as well as half of teaching and nonteaching employees cast ballots.

Sixty-seven percent of the votes from both groups must be in agreement for restructuring the school.

“CLCs have proven effective in making sure kids are ready to learn when they take their seats in a classroom,” Driehaus said, adding that the Cincinnati Public School district recently won a national innovation award from the National Coalition of Community Learning Centers in recognition of their success with this model.

“The model provides wrap-around community services to help meet the needs of children, both academic and otherwise.”

Driehaus said 35 of Cincinnati’s 55 school buildings are community learning centers.

“In HB 460, the community plays an important role in setting up the CLC. Families, residents, students, educators and business leaders review the strengths and needs of their community and decide how best to support young people and their families. Together, they decide what is important for children in the neighborhood and what services meet the needs of that particular community.”

While Driehaus went on to say that CLCs wouldn’t be “constrained by a prescribed one-size-fits-all model,” she noted that officials would be informed about what has previously worked.

“Public/private and public/public partnerships are a key element to the CLC model and allow it to be self-sustaining,” she said.

“Once the needs of the community have been assessed, partners are brought into the school to provide services to address those needs. These partners operate using their own dollars so that no education funding is necessary to provide the services.”

For example, Driehaus said if mental health services are deemed necessary for student achievement, a mental health provider would establish a satellite site in a school to provide such services.

“The provider bills the individual, their insurance company or Medicaid so that there is no cost to the school and no reduction to the money going into the classrooms,” she said, adding that CLCs “provide a model of efficiency.”

“School buildings, under HB 460, are places of education, but also health centers, recreation sites, meeting sites. The need for additional facilities is eliminated in neighborhoods with CLCs.”

According to a bill summary, HB 460 would require a district board or community school governing authority to create a school action team to conduct a performance audit of a community learning center building, review the building’s needs with regard to current school restructuring provisions and create and implement an improvement plan, subject to the approval of parents, guardians, teachers, and nonteaching employees, and the district board or school governing authority.

The measure specifies that the bill’s provisions regarding community learning centers would prevail over any conflicting provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into on or after the bill’s effective date.

HB 460 has not been scheduled for additional hearings.

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