Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1505501
" Our counseling team facilitates attendance, academics, mental health, education, referrals. We saw that there is a high need for parenting workshops, how to parent your teen, so we recently started them, with childcare available. We have lots of resources for families — Hoover Market, our upcoming Cardinal Closet with clothing, lawyers to help with the undocumented, wrongfully eviction, students who have lost their only guardian or parent." — ANDREA MUNOZ, head counselor Strong partners In addition to community partners at individual school sites, a steering committee at the district level includes representatives from San Diego State University, community organizations, educators, high school students and others who meet monthly, oversee work groups and provide recommendations. SDEA is a member of the San Diego Community Schools Coalition, which advocates with parents, community organizations, school board members and at the bargaining table to elevate parent and educator voice in the deci- sion-making process. Hoover High School maintains an extensive network of community, dis- trict and city resources for students and families in multiple arenas, including legal services, food and shelter, health and wellness, tutoring and more. The Union Role San Diego Education Association is unique in that it won a contract fight with the school district in the 1990s that codified shared decision-making. This has proved crucial to San Diego community schools' success — and is a sticking point for other locals who do not have such contract language. Without it, educators, as well as parents, students and community members, often struggle to be heard and participate as equals. Many locals are now organizing to ensure shared governance is codified, for community schools and for the public education structure that best serves students. "SDEA has advocated for community schools because we view them as a way to elevate the voice of our highest-need school communities and get more resources and better processes to the students that we serve," says SDEA President Kyle Weinberg. CTA's role is important on a statewide level. "CTA has been essential to establishing strong community schools in Cal- ifornia — lobbying with the State Board of Education, with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to make sure that the pillars and mechanisms of transformative community schools are embedded into state policy," Weinberg says. At left, students working in Hoover's garden. At right, inside the campus Health Center. Next page, across: Mural on the Hoover High campus. C O M M U N I T Y S C H O O L S 38 cta.org Social Justice