San Diego Unified School District is adding 10 more community schools this school year, expanding a program designed to provide essential resources to students and their families.
Community schools serve as neighborhood hubs that offer resources beyond traditional education, including wellness centers, food pantries and adult English language classes.
"We've kind of become the hub of our little neighborhood," said Tessa Wixon, Community Schools Coordinator at Lafayette Elementary.
Lafayette Elementary in Clairemont is one of the district's community schools that focuses on creating an environment where students can thrive both academically and personally.
"That's by providing the resources that the school community says are necessary. In addition, it's about transforming the learning space and learning environment to reflect the students that we serve," said Jason Babineau, Senior Director for Community Schools at San Diego Unified.
Lafayette Elementary features a specialized deaf and hard of hearing program that draws students from across the district.
"We have an extensive team of interpreters. We have an extensive team of auditory oral support systems. We have audiologists. We have speech specialists that specialize in deaf and hard of hearing children," Wixon said.
Jennifer Bacheimer, a fifth-grade teacher in the deaf and hard of hearing program who was born deaf, spoke through an interpreter about the program's impact.
"DHH students every day they have the right to feel recognized and seen and heard," Bacheimer said.
The community school model has helped bridge gaps in services and foster collaboration.
"For a long time it felt like there was a large gap, and so with community schools in place, it's really helped us to collaborate and figure out our commonalities and our common goals and to be able to work together to improve our school," Bacheimer said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
