In February 2024, the L.A. Unified Community Schools Steering Committee (CSSC) finalized the selection and designation of eight schools to join Cohort 5 of the Community Schools Initiative (CSI). The designation supports collective efforts to achieve L.A. Unified's expansion goal of 70 community schools by 2025.

The eight-school expansion follows UNITE-LA's efforts to co-create solutions and lead efforts in school recruitment, application revisions, creation of a scoring rubric aligned with the state's Community Schools framework, scorer trainings, and synthesization of application scores and narratives between August to December 2023.

The CSSC is thrilled to welcome the new, diverse group of schools, which includes 24th Street Elementary School, Charnock Elementary School, Cheremoya Elementary School, Coliseum Elementary School, Hancock Park Elementary School, Woodland Hills Academy Middle School, Public Service Community School at Diego Rivera Learning Center, and Lexington Primary Center.

Designated schools were included in the district's 2023-24 California Community School Partnership Program (CCSPP) implementation grant, submitted on Feb. 9. Additional funding from the state will support comprehensive staffing, partnerships, training and equitable instruction and grading practices, ensuring our community schools effectively increase student and family learning outcomes. Cohort 5 schools join the existing 55 CSI Cohort 1-4 schools beginning the 2024-25 school year.

Community Schools is a proven approach to equitable, meaningful and transformative school and community growth. UNITE-LA is excited to expand efforts to integrate more LAUSD schools into the CSI cohort, amplifying the initiative's regional impact.

For more information, please reach out to Jenny Vu, Director of Education Systems Strategy, at [email protected] and Dominique Rougeau, L.A. Compact Coordinator, at [email protected].