As CCSPP expands, districts have an opportunity to build the infrastructure for scale
California's continued investment in community schools through the Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) apportionment in the state budget creates an important opportunity for school districts to think beyond individual sites and toward answering a more ambitious question: What would it take to build a full community school district? Hint: it takes more than having all your eligible school sites opt in to the funding.
A full community school district is one in which every school functions as a community school, regardless of the funding or resources supporting their work. These districts are sometimes called "full-service community school districts.” The point is, regardless of how it’s funded, some districts have been able to create a system where all of their schools are community schools. Across the district, community and neighborhoods.
Throughout the state and country, many districts have built strong examples of community school implementation. Talented coordinators are building partnerships. Principals are creating welcoming environments. Schools are connecting students and families to needed supports. Teachers, classified staff, families, and community partners are finding new ways to work together. Decision making is inclusive, and teams are working on common goals and purposes. The new apportionment offers an opportunity for people to build on this foundation of strong work, across districts, communities and counties. But with this expansion comes a challenge: how do we ensure community schools do not become a collection of individual programs that vary from school to school? How do we ensure that the true promise of community school development—transforming how we “do school”—can be fulfilled?
I learned this firsthand working in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), as part of the team that helped build the infrastructure to support the vision of the nation’s first full community school district. Before the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), OUSD and the community collectively mobilized around the community school strategy – not just for a few of our schools, but for all of them. We leaned into a model blending philanthropy, district dollars and school-based funding to create a proof of concept that system change at the school and district level could create the conditions for improved academic, social and emotional outcomes for students. Want to know more? Oakland’s transformational story can be found in The Way We Do School: The Making of Oakland’s Full-Service Community School District.
One of the ways we built OUSD into a full community school district—one in which systems, teams, and goals were aligned from the district level to the site level—was to create the infrastructure to support community school development and longevity across schools. The next phase of community school development in California offers an opportunity to move from promising sites to connected systems akin to what we did in OUSD—to build the infrastructure that allows every school to offer coordinated, equitable, and measurable support, and to to build the relationships that create belonging.
A full community school district is not just a district with more schools functioning as community schools. It is a district where the systems that make community schools effective and ensure longevity—coordination, shared leadership, data literacy, partnerships, professional learning, and accountability—are intentionally designed to work together and provide supportive infrastructure across schools.
That distinction matters.
“A full community school district is not just a district with more schools functioning as community schools. It is a district where the systems that make community schools effective and ensure longevity—coordination, shared leadership, data literacy, partnerships, professional learning, and accountability—are intentionally designed to work together and provide supportive infrastructure across schools.”
In many districts, community school development begins organically. A motivated principal, a strong coordinator, or a longstanding community partnership creates the conditions for powerful work at one particular site.
Those schools can become proof points for what’s possible for other schools. But taking this proof of concept to scale requires a different kind of commitment and infrastructure at the district level.
When every site defines community schools differently, uses different systems, manages partnerships independently, works towards different goals, and measures impact in different ways, it becomes difficult for districts to answer questions like:
Without a shared architecture, "community schools" can become a label that means something different at every site, to different teams, and to different families. The apportionment in the state budget offers a chance to create common understandings, goals, and structures while maintaining the flexibility schools need to respond to their unique communities.
Districts that are preparing to expand need to know that becoming a community school must be more than designating sites as community schools—and that school teams shouldn’t be “voluntold” about the opportunity, or the expectations.
Districts can create a clear on-ramp that helps sites understand both the opportunity and the commitment involved. Rather than placing the decision solely with an individual principal, create a process that invites site leadership, school governance teams, and district leadership to participate.
For example, when we were starting our second wave of expansion in Oakland, we had schools apply to become a community school by demonstrating readiness and a commitment to sustaining the community school model. Each school had to document that foundational elements were in place, including:
The purpose was not to create unnecessary barriers, but to help ensure that schools have the infrastructure needed to make sure community school development had longevity—and to make sure expansion is a shared commitment rather than an individual initiative or mandate.
The greatest opportunity for districts entering the next phase of CCSPP may be to invest in the connective infrastructure that supports every site. A full-service community school district needs systems that allow district leaders and school communities to see the whole picture. That includes:
Shared data systems. Districts and site-level teams need accessible, timely, accurate, and actionable data to understand who is being served, what services are being provided, where resources are concentrated, and what outcomes are changing over time.
A professional learning network for coordinators. Community School Coordinators (CSCs) should not have to reinvent the work at every site. A district-wide network creates opportunities for CSCs to share tools, problem-solve together, and build a common understanding of the role.
Coordinated partnerships. When departments and external partners understand how they fit within the community school strategy, they can move beyond operating as separate programs and become part of a coordinated system. This requires leaders and teams to have an orientation towards partnership and collaboration, which might be new for some people.
District-wide structures for student and family voice. Youth leadership, family engagement, and shared governance can become stronger when they are connected across schools while remaining rooted in local community needs. Interest holder voice, engagement and leadership need to be a priority across the district and at sites.
Training and capacity building for site leadership. School Site Councils and other shared leadership structures need support to move beyond compliance and become meaningful spaces for decision-making and collective ownership. Along the same lines, being a community school principal requires different skills and capacities. Principals need support, too.
Building district-wide infrastructure does not mean every school should look the same. Communities have different strengths, histories, cultures, and needs. A community school in one neighborhood should be able to develop partnerships and strategies that reflect its community.
No two community schools are exactly alike, nor should they be. But equity requires maintaining some things that are consistent across sites, across the district. Every student and family should have access to a coordinated system of support. Every site should have the capacity and commitment to engage community voice. Every Community School Coordinator should have access to professional learning and peer support.
Community school districts strike the balance between common infrastructure and local flexibility.
Community school development should not become another initiative competing for attention. The strongest opportunity is to use the community school strategy as connective tissue—linking student support, family engagement, instructional priorities, attendance, mental health, restorative practices, partnerships, and other district efforts around shared goals.
This requires alignment with the district's broader priorities, including the LCAP, as well as site-level planning through the SPSA. More importantly, those goals must be shaped by authentic input from students, families, educators, staff, and community partners.
Shared structures alone will not create a community school system. People also need a shared sense of purpose and a clear understanding of how their work connects to the larger whole.
Knowing where you are and where you want to grow
The Community Schools Essentials Framework provides some guidance for districts in terms of the supportive infrastructure that site-level work needs in order to thrive – shared governance, continuous improvement, strategic partnerships, sustainable resources, data systems, and professional learning opportunities. District teams could consider starting with these elements of supportive infrastructure and identifying areas of strength, and growth opportunities. Make a plan for how you will build up strengths in some components and continue to grow your work in others alongside planning for district-wide community school implementation.
As the competitive CCSPP grant program shifts to being an apportionment, the question is not simply “how many more schools can we add?” The question is “what systems do we need to build now so that every additional school strengthens the larger community school ecosystem? What do we need to build to ensure longevity and impact?”
This is an opportunity to invest in the infrastructure that is often harder to see—but essential to sustaining the work:
The long-term vision is not simply to have a district with a growing number of community school sites. Rather, the long-term vision is to build a community school district: one where students and families experience coordinated support regardless of which school they attend, where schools are connected rather than operating in isolation, and where district leaders and communities can see—and continuously improve upon—the impact of their collective investment.
The next phase of CCSPP offers California districts a chance to build toward that vision.
The opportunity is not just to scale community schools. It is a chance to build the system that allows community schools to scale well, and for the long run.
Ali Metzler brings over 25 years of experience leading community school and youth development efforts across organizations, cities, and school districts throughout the Bay Area. At the Community Schools Learning Exchange (CSLX), Ali serves as Director of Coaching and Client Services, where she leads the CSLX Coaching Team, supports client engagement, and contributes to business development and partnership growth.
Prior to joining CSLX, Ali served as the Community School Leadership Coordinator for Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), where she led districtwide community school leadership, coaching, and integrated support. She led the Community School Manager (CSM) team, oversaw implementation of the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), and supported the expansion of community schools aligned with OUSD’s strategic vision to become a full-service community school district.
Earlier in her career, Ali was the Associate Director of the San Francisco Beacon Initiative and a Program Manager for San Francisco Unified School District’s ExCEL After School Program, where she focused on initiative building, systems alignment and cross-sector partnerships.
Ali’s favorite professional experience was working directly with teens in San Francisco’s Mission District to create ceramic mosaic public art murals and to co-develop KidPower Park alongside her students. She is a proud parent of three teenagers and currently serves on the School Site Council of her children’s school in Oakland.
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