Community School Information

By Jeannette Carson, Principal
jcarson@mpesd.org
(408) 258-7288

Goals and Priorities

Robert Sanders Elementary School’s goal is to enhance equity in our community and accelerate our efforts to reimagine schools so that all students and families thrive. We are seeking funding to invest in our plan to build a whole-child-focused community school. We plan to work closely within a network of community schools within our District. We have designed our implementation to focus on integrated student supports in Year 1 and will continue to build and develop across the comprehensive school model over the course of the 5-year grant.

School Overview, Needs and Assets

We serve a diverse community, including significant populations of students who have been historically underserved. Our unduplicated count for 2023-24 was 85.1%; 80% eligible for free or reduced lunch, 74% Hispanic, 1.8% African American, 1.7% Pacific Islander, 46.6% English learners, 16.4% students with IEPs, and 7.9% Homeless with insecure housing. Our school was heavily impacted by the pandemic and has worked hard to engage our community.

School Leadership worked together over the last four months to gather and analyze parents, staff and student surveys, archival data and met with focus groups. Our school leaders also consulted and planned with our community partners.

Summary of Assets Overview

We have invested significantly in our school model to support these student populations. For example, we have the following systems of support in place:

• Site leaders participate in district DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Advisory Committee: to identify areas to improve equity and belonging. The DEIB committee developed project-based units on diversity to teach social-emotional learning and diversity (DEIB) lessons built into the school day.
• A comprehensive extended learning program with before & after-school care, intersession, and a six-week summer program 
• A full- day full-year, early learning California State Preschool located on site. 
• Collaboration with existing CCSPP schools in the district, sharing expertise and resources.
• School -Linked Services- Family Case manager works with families and students to provide community resources, and support families in meeting their needs.

Summary of Identified Needs Based on Asset Mapping & Needs Assessment

Integration and availability of Student Supports

The availability and coordination of resources is not currently available or well-articulated. There is no clear MTSS system. There are significantly more students in need of mental health and academic supports than staff capacity.

Conditions of Learning

Gaps in productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed learning. There are significant gaps in student achievement and targeted support for intervention, especially for students who are homeless, English learners, Hispanic and students with disabilities.

Core Commitments

Describe the school’s commitment to implement core principles, including the Cornerstone Commitments identified in the Framework.

Robert Sanders is deeply committed to the Cornerstone Commitments identified in the CCSPP Framework. We would categorize our commitments and structures in support of these commitments as evolving; that said, our emergence out of the pandemic has tested many of our baseline practices in a way that requires new thinking and approaches. The community school framework aligns with our school vision and values, in integrating whole-child systems of support for ALL students and building an equity-based relationship-centered school with strong community partnerships.

Assets-Driven and Strength-Based Practice

We recognize that our community has significant strengths alongside needs. We plan to anchor our work in strengths-based practices, staff will receive ongoing professional development in areas such as, positive behavioral supports and culturally sustaining and responsive pedagogy focused on asset-building and strengths-based practices. Staff will collaborate to share best practices and learning plans. 

Racially Just and Restorative School Climates

We will implement positive behavioral interventions, supports, and restorative practices. We have worked hard to reduce exclusionary discipline and plan to provide additional training in racially responsive and trauma-informed practices

Powerful, Culturally Proficient and Relevant Instruction

We have made a concerted effort to recruit and hire staff members that reflect the demographic profile of our students; for example, 70% of teachers identify as persons of color. All staff members engage in consistent professional development to ensure instructional practices support our scholars in culturally relevant and responsive practices. 

Shared Decision-Making and Participatory Practices

Our school has a committed Instructional Leadership Team that includes teachers and other core staff members; Further, we have recruited highly engaged parents to lead our School Site Council and plan to provide further training and support.

Using these grant funds, our school will invest in the following:

• Increased staffing for a part-time mental health counselor to support the significant emotional and behavioral health needs of our student community. 
• Hire a Community School Coordinator to support implementation
• Develop a comprehensive Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model
• Ongoing professional development and collaboration to ensure staff members are aligned and committed to the core aspects of our community school practices (internal and external training opportunities), trauma-informed practices, inclusion, PBIS, MTSS, and shared decision-making practices as well as supportive environmental conditions and productive instructional strategies.
• A comprehensive social-emotional growth system (Sown-To-Grow), where students can share their emotional well-being and experience at school and also build critical SEL skills over time.
• Student and parent engagement activities and support based on stakeholder input to remove barriers.
• Parent and teacher leadership development 
• Positive behavioral supports, universal interventions at tier I, activities for student engagement, reinforcement of positive expectations, and meaningful engagement

Measurable Goals and Activities

We have established clear, measurable goals in support of our plan:

• 100% of teachers will be trained on the core aspects of our community school practices and how new roles/partnerships will expand whole-child support by June 30, 2030.
• 100% of students will have access to high-quality Tier I emotional well-being support weekly. We will begin with a weekly emotional check-in and expand into social-emotional skill-building. (SowntoGrow) by June 30, 2026.
• 100% of students will have access to high-quality Tier II and Tier III interventions based on their determined needs starting by June 30, 2025, with complete implementation by June 30, 2030. We will expand our MTSS system to include emotional well-being inputs, and we will demonstrate a response to those inputs in a timely manner. Families will be collaborative partners in this process.
• Students will improve their social-emotional learning capacity, as measured by pre/posts on an annual SEL screener. By 5th grade, 80%+ of students will show improvement or high levels of capacity in Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Responsible Decision Making, and Relationship Skills by June 30, 2030.
• Students will experience a stronger sense of belonging, as measured by pre/posts on an annual SEL screener. By 5th grade, 80%+ of students will show improvement or high levels of capacity in the sense of belonging measures by June 30, 2030.
• Decrease the percentage of students with chronic absenteeism by 5% (currently 21.2%) by June 30, 2028.

Key Staff

The following roles are designated as leaders of the community school approach at our school:
A Community School Coordinator who will lead and help monitor implementation, work closely with site leadership and Principal and support relationships and engagement.
The Leadership Council; composed of the Principal, Teachers, Parents, Community School Coordinator, and Family Liaison: Will work together to expand model, continue to gather stakeholder feedback and evaluate progress towards goals.

Planned Implementation Structures

• Bi-Weekly implementation meeting of key roles and leadership team
• Monthly progress updates to the Instructional Leadership Team, School Site Council, and school staff
• Annual presentation to the Governing Board

Coherence Policy and Initiative - LCAP Connections

Our community school goals are fully aligned with our district’s LCAP, under Goal 1 and 3 in our district LCAP:

Goal 3

Create a safe and supportive learning environment at all school sites where students attend and are connected to their schools. Strategies include supporting the most vulnerable populations, Improving student engagement and attendance, Improving school climate, and Increasing parent engagement. 

Goal 1 in our district LCAP, Pupil Outcomes

Increase student success for all student subgroups in English Language Arts/Literacy, Math, and Science by providing high-quality instruction that promotes college and career readiness with academic interventions and differentiated instruction to decrease the achievement gap. Aligned strategies: Intervention support, additional support staff, culturally relevant instruction, and student engagement.

Strategic Community Partnerships

We plan to partner with the following organizations to implement our vision: 

• Santa Clara University, student engagement and community service
• Sown To Grow, a comprehensive SEL and training partner that supports student emotional wellbeing, MTSS, and our community schools model
• Alum Rock Counseling Center .2 FTE Counselor providing tier II counseling for students who have Medi-Cal.
• Santa Clara County Behavioral Health School Linked Services provides funding toward family liaison and parent engagement activities.

Artifacts Overview

Artifact I - Community Asset Mapping and Needs/Gap Analysis- Report Findings, Results of SEL Screener, Surveys and Focus Groups 
Artifact II -Roster and Minutes - Shared Decision-Making Council 
Artifact III - Letters of Support & Partnership Agreements

• Letter Santa Clara University
• Partnership Agreement -Alum Rock Counseling Center 
• Partnership Agreement- Healthier Kids Foundation 
• Partnership Agreement - Santa Clara County Behavioral Health School Linked Services provides funding toward family liaison and parent engagement activities.