Last week, the Baltimore Sun wrote about the growing network of Baltimore City Community Schools. OSI-Baltimore grantee The Family League, acts as the operating manager for the City’s core of 52 Community Schools, who partner with dozens of organizations to provide enhanced and extended education opportunities, health and social services, extracurricular activities, nightly supper and food pantries, as well as a sense of belonging that make children want to come to school and succeed at life.
“Community Schools are about creating an opportunity hub, an access point that doesn’t already exist,” the Family League’s Julia Baez says in the story. One of OSI Baltimore’s designated “High Value High Schools” is Ben Franklin High School, a community school that has been recognized nationally with an Award for Excellence from the Coalition for Community Schools after undergoing a dramatic turnaround through the hard work of its principal and the services offered by the Family League and the community school model.
A year ago, when community school activists rallied at City Hall to encourage the city to continue funding community schools, there were only 48 of them.
