NEWS

Did you know that the average United Community School yields a 6 to 1 return on investment (ROI) for its funding? That means for every $100,000 (salary + benefits) invested in a community school director within the UCS network, students and families gain $600,000 worth of programs and services that combat barriers to learning. We see this impact firsthand through community school directors like Sharea Thomas at IS 96 in Brooklyn. This year alone, Sharea leveraged her community partnerships to secure a $750,000 Resolution A grant for the construction of a state-of-the-art zoology lab. She also secured a $600,000 technology upgrade, which helped to bridge the digital divide by providing a smartboard for every classroom and a laptop for every student.

This budget season, we want to highlight how big of a difference a high ROI makes.

On Feb. 10, we joined the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the statewide teachers’ union affiliated with the UFT, in Albany for a screening of its new film, “1 in 5.” The film builds on a startling fact – that one in five public school students in New York State lives in poverty – and explores the impact of childhood poverty on educational outcomes.

The film shared stories like that of a student in Ilion, NY, who missed a week of school because he lacked access to a washing machine and couldn’t come to school in dirty clothes. It described a 9-year-old student in Rochester who missed school because his house had no locks and he feared for his mother’s safety. Situations like these students’, exacerbated by food and housing insecurity, lack of access to health care, immigration issues and other concerns, are routine at schools in the UCS network. 85.7% of UCS schools meet the Department of Education’s economic need index criteria for students living in poverty, compared with only 69% of all NYC district schools.

The film also highlighted a UCS school, PS 399 in Brooklyn, as a shining example of the community schools model and its unmatched effectiveness in combatting the effects of childhood poverty. This Title I school supports its student population, 40% of whom live in temporary housing, with meat and fresh produce from monthly food pantries, group therapy to address trauma and lessons in podcasting, pottery, sign language and fencing. 

The secret isn’t just in offering wraparound services like health clinics, dental and eye exams, community food pantries, housing support and child care. It’s in leveraging the assets and relationships that already exist within the school’s neighborhood. At a UCS school, students, families and educators are the driving force of identifying unmet needs. Organizations and businesses already rooted in the community are the first relationships our community school directors leverage as they work with the school community to meet those needs.

And that model yields impressive numbers. Even with limited state funding for community schools, we’ve leveraged a 6 to 1 ROI by using our resources with surgical precision. For instance, in the 2024-25 school year, we successfully fed 71,867 families – a twofold increase from the previous year. We also saw a surge in health, dental and vision visits that year, ensuring that thousands more students entered the classroom healthy and ready to learn.

That day in February, after viewing “1 in 5,” we met with legislators to discuss the strength of our community school model. We imagined together how much more we can do in the future to stretch funding further and put it in the hands of the communities that know exactly what they need to remove educational barriers. We were heartened by how receptive legislators and their representatives were during these conversations.

Thank you, as always, for being part of United Community Schools’ impact.

Sincerely,

Karen and Christine