School and Community

Relations
It takes a village to raise a child.
- African Proverb

A collaboration between the school and the community is needed in order to nurture children
in a wholesome environment that will develop them into better individuals. This is a kind of
partenership wehre both the school and the community will share information and responsibilities
to best the interest of the children while dealing with school activities and the members of the
community.
Schools of the 1990s are characterized by their continued interaction with the communities
they serve. Today's and tomorrow's school administrators need to have skills for working
effectively with the diverse communities in which all schools exist. Well-developed community
relations skills are a necessary component in administrators' being responsive to the needs of
students and other educators.

Increased Emphasis on Community Relations Skills

One of the dramatic shifts in the last two generations has been in the direction of
increased emphasis on the development of the school’s good relationships with their
communities.
The school must do a good job and communicate that success to the diverse publics
each school serves. Too often schools are doing a good job and make no attempt to
communicate their accomplishments to their constituent communities. Undoubtedly,
there are also those schools whose public relations campaigns greatly exceed their
factual accomplishments. However, the emphasis here is on the schools which are
striving to provide both a sound education for students and the rationale behind strong,
positive school-community relations.

Communities as Pluralistic Entities

A second major change in schools during the last two generations has been the
increasing recognition that our constituent communities are pluralistic in nature.
Communities have taken different forms and functions. Thus, Getzel’s taxonomy of
communities:
 1 2

Local community Administrative community

The collective identity is founded in a The collective identity is found in a
particular neighborhood or region: for particular politically determined identity:
example, the local neighborhood or for example, the city, county, or school
school community. district community.

3 4
Instrumental community
Social community The collective identity is founded in direct or
The collective identity is founded in a indirect engagement with others in
particular set of interpersonal relationships performance of a particular function of mutual
without regard to local or administrative concern: for example, a professional group;
boundaries: for example, all the people in such as the educational community, a union
one's community of friends. community, or a philanthropic community.

5 6
Ethnic, caste, or class community Ideological community
The collective identity is founded in affinity The collective identity is founded in a particular
to a particular national, racial, or cultural historic, conceptual, or sociopolitical community
that stretches across the local, administrative,
group: for example, the Irish, black, or social, instrumental, or ethnic communities: for
upper-class community. example, the Christian, scholarly, or socialist
communities.

This recognition of the diversity of our communities provides the school with a basic
awareness on which he or she can proceed to develop constructive and high impact programs.
Once the school scans the landscape of the community and identifies the various communities,
then he or she is ready to identify the leadership within the communities.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
 To lift up and raise our schools to a place that suits all 21st century learners, help needs to come
from many parts of the community. The leading roles should be alternated according to the need and
focus of the particular aspect of the transformation project.

5 steps to
Better School Step 1: Expand Your Vision of School to Include
Community Community

Relationship There are so many opportunities for experiential learning to

happen out in the community surrounding the school. We
just need to find ways to connect core curriculum beyond
the classroom by attracting the right people and asking the
right questions.

Step 2: Reach Out to All Stakeholders

One of the best ways to connect and create an authentic bond is to go to the people
who matter most, and meet them on their own turf. A series of community walks are a
great way to start.
Share the school’s vision for enhanced community-school partnerships, ask people
what matters to them, ask them how they might help, and show them your passion.
Deliver them an open invitation to reconnect, collaborate and share their experience,
skills and time to make a difference.

Step 3: Create a Community Resource Map

A visual representation of your community and the va rious skills people have to offer
is a super way to understand what community resources are available. If you build one,
also point out the materials people can supply at cost or for free, the time they can
invest in projects, and how they can connect to c urriculum, and classroom activities.
Include the networks they can utilize to raise awareness of the needs of local children
and families, and always promote and foster resource-sharing and collaboration.

Step 4: Connect with Curriculum

Much of what we learn as children and adults happens outside the classroom through
real world experiences and from our peers, mentors or on the job.

How might we connect today's core curriculum with the real world? That is an important
question that is in urgent need of answers. Kids today are asking far too often for
relevance in what they are learning. "Why am I learning this? I'll never use this!" is a
response far too often heard from the mouths of young people today.
Step 5: A Design Challenge for the Community

Reinventing school can mean lots of things such as redesigning classrooms, creating
a community garden, creating an open and shared learning space, designing a course,
changing the way students participate in decision making, you name it!

Act. A. Using a progression map, design a 5-step plan that

shows activities and proposals that will improve the school

1.2
community relationship.

B. What could be the possible result of an indifferent relationship between a school

and the community? Present your answer in bullet form.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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 Linkages and Community
Relations

In creating an impact on the lives of the students and the the community, the
school, and its community, with public and private institutions and organizations are
inseparable.
It’s not a secret that many groups from various sectors are willing to support and
join forces with educational institutions in pursuing mutually beneficial and productive
programs and projects for the greater good.
Networking and linkages are important for the following reasons:

 The program outreach and visibility can be greatly increased.

 Technology transfer, share and dissemination can be facilitated between networked
organization and among the respective partners
 Sharing of knowledge, skill, expertise and experiences helps in improving the
effectiveness and efficiency
 Co-financing links can be forged
 Replication of funding can be avoided and the grants can be used in a better managed
and meaningful fashion

Linkages
Relationships and interactions between tasks, functions, departments, and organizations,
that promote flow of information, ideas, and integration in achievement of shared
objectives

Network
n. a group or system of interconnected people or things.

v. interact with others to exchange information and develop professional or social

contacts.
 Categories of Potential
Collaborators

1. Services within your own agency but not within your unit/division (for
example, TANF).

2. Formal, traditional service providers that child welfare workers often

work with (for example, mental health providers, domestic violence,
educators).

3. Other service providers that child welfare workers don't usually work
with (for example, police, health care providers).

4. Less formal services (for example, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and
Girls Clubs, Police Clubs, family support centers).

5. Neighborhood and community organizations and networks (for example,

faith-based groups, neighborhood associations).

6. Public services (for example, utilities, transportation).

7. Other community stakeholder groups (for example, the business

community, city and county government officials, civic organizations
like Rotary, Chamber of Commerce).
Act. Complete a list of five (5) different groups or organizations that
can potentially become school collaborators. Explain a specific

1.3 contribution that you can envision for that particular group or
organization.