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News Releases » MPUSD Awarded $8.7 Million to Support Student Needs: District Secures $8.7 Million Grant to Revolutionize Student Support through California Community Schools Partnership Program

MPUSD Awarded $8.7 Million to Support Student Needs: District Secures $8.7 Million Grant to Revolutionize Student Support through California Community Schools Partnership Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 14, 2024


Contact:

Marci McFadden, Chief of Communications and Engagement

831.706.6971


MPUSD Awarded $8.7 Million to Support Student Needs in Seaside

District Secures $8.7 Million Grant to Revolutionize Student Support through California Community Schools Partnership Program


Monterey, CA - The Monterey Peninsula School District has been awarded a groundbreaking $8,787,500 million grant from the California Community Schools Partnership Program, earmarked to bolster student support over the next five years through strategic partnerships with community service agencies, aimed at enhancing assistance for both students and their families.

"This is a huge win for our community and ultimately our students. MPUSD will create schools in Seaside where everyone feels included, supported and excited to learn. These six Seaside community schools will serve as main hub forging comprehensive partnerships with community organizations to offer a spectrum of vital services—from early childhood education and physical and mental health support to academic tutoring, before and after school programming, mentorship, and even nutritious meals for students and their families,” said PK Diffenbaugh, Superintendent, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District.

MPUSD became the third cohort approved by the California Department of Education on May 7, 2024, for a California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) implementation grant. According to State Board of Education Board President Linda Darling-Hammond in a release by the California School Boards Association, this is “the largest community schools allocation yet under the state’s nation-leading initiative to transform schools through a child- and family-centered lens.”  


Embarking on a transformative journey, six of MPUSD's schools in Seaside—Del Rey Woods Elementary, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School of the Arts, the Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula, Seaside High School, Seaside Middle School, Ord Terrace Elementary—will undergo a strategic shift aimed to cater comprehensively to the direct needs of students and their families by offering an array of services geared toward academic and emotional success.


“A big component of community schools is educational partner feedback, and specifically student voice,” emphasized Diffenbaugh.

Enacted by the California Legislature in 2021 and infused with additional funding and an extension until 2031 in 2022, the California Community Schools Partnership Act pursues a holistic approach encompassing academics, health, social services, youth and community development, and robust community engagement.

Backed by research from the California Department of Education, the integration of community school strategies stands poised to mitigate the academic and social fallout of local emergencies, enhance school responsiveness to student and family needs, and synchronize resources to surmount learning barriers. These strategies hinge on four pivotal pillars: integrated support services, family and community engagement, collaborative leadership, and expanded learning opportunities.

To start, MPUSD is actively recruiting six community school coordinators to serve each school. Each community school noted above will establish an advisory council, composed of teachers, parents, community members, students, and community-based organizations. Fostering shared leadership, community school coordinators will collaborate with educators, families, partners, and students to cultivate a unified vision and nurture ongoing community engagement and empowerment. Furthermore, community schools will develop systems to seamlessly integrate mental, physical, and behavioral health services, ensuring that all adults within the school actively contribute to students' social-emotional development and cultivate an environment of safety and belonging.

According to the CSBA, community schools are known for providing resources such as medical and dental care, as well as mental and behavioral health services, but the model hinges on a combination of academics with a wide range of vital in-house services, supports and opportunities that are integral to promoting children’s learning and overall development. Community schools prioritize strategic structures for integrating academics and collaborative leadership with youth and community development, health and social services, and community engagement in alignment with the goals and values of California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support to organize campuses around the academic, behavioral, social-emotional and mental health needs of students.

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About MPUSD
The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is home to approximately 9,600 students in grades transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. The district also houses preschool and adult education. The district is built on a solid foundation of effective instruction, positive school culture, systems of support, and collaborative leadership. The district is nestled along the Monterey Bay, and stretches from the city of Marina to the north to the city of Monterey to the south, and encompasses the communities of Del Rey Oaks, Marina, Monterey, Sand City and Seaside.