Millett bill to grow community schools receives committee approval

AUGUSTA — Legislation from Sen. Rebecca Millett, D-Cape Elizabeth, LD 1216 “An Act to Support Community Schools,” received approval from the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

The bill would make the Department of Education’s pilot community school project permanent, authorizing five community schools in school year 2020-2021 and 10 more in 2021-2022. A community school is a partnership between the school and community resources facilitated by a school coordinator.

“With the support of my colleagues, we have taken an important step to expand the community school model,” said Sen. Millett. “The pilot community school program I supported in 2015 showed that having school coordinators can increase efficiency and bring all partners in a community together to better use resources to the benefit of our students.”

School staff are often burdened with a number of responsibilities beyond the jobs that they were hired for. Burn out rates are high and school districts are often left with a deficit in staffing. Having one person to coordinate at the community level would help to sustain relationships between the community and the school and improve efficiency while alleviating the burden on other staff.

The bill now faces votes before the Maine Senate and House.

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