South Knoxville Elementary School included in community schools initiative

KNOXVILLE — The Knox County Schools and the Great Schools Partnership have announced its community schools initiative is expanding to include South Knoxville Elementary School beginning in the 2014-15 school year.

Community Schools are a strategy for aligning community resources for student success, family health and neighborhood safety. Community Schools stay open into the evening and offer additional instructional time as well as recreational, arts, mental health, adult education and other services. Each Community School is managed by a site-steering committee composed of school staff, teachers, parents, businesses and other community leaders. Community Schools are funded through a blend of public and private contributions.

“The energy around the South Knoxville waterfront redevelopment makes this an ideal time to create a community school at South Knoxville Elementary,” says Stephanie Welch, Vice President of Operations for Community Schools at the Great Schools Partnership. “The school is in the middle of the South Knoxville waterfront, and will play a key role in bringing partners together for student, family and community success."

In addition to South Knoxville Elementary, the Knox County Schools and the Great Schools Partnership also provide Community Schools at the following locations: Christenberry Elementary, Green Magnet Academy, Lonsdale Elementary, Norwood Elementary, Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy and Vine Middle Magnet School. The Knox County Schools has one Community School in partnership with the University of Tennessee: Pond Gap Elementary.

The mission of the Great Schools Partnership is to serve as a think-tank, catalyst, incubator and start-up funder for making Knox County Schools globally competitive. A free-standing public charity, the Great Schools Partnership has been instrumental in leveraging and/or creating programs such as birth to kindergarten, early literacy initiatives, the TAP Program (formerly known as the Teacher Advancement Program), summer bridge programs for struggling students, distance learning programs, learning labs, teacher mentoring/induction programs, Thank a Teacher Week and more. For more information on the Great Schools Partnership, please call (865) 215-4501 or visit greatschoolspartnership.com.

Published July 6, 2014