Local community schools help provide resources to Minidoka County families

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Schools are places for children to learn, but in today’s world, they can offer so much more.

Federal grants are helping turn public schools into community centers, providing much-needed resources to assist families.

Within the Minidoka School District, there are three community schools. It all started when a counselor requested a grant to bring something like this to the school district.

They received the grant, and two years ago, they formed their first community school, West Minico Middle School. As it enters its third year, it added East Minico Middle School and Heyburn Elementary.

Karlene Ashcraft, the community school coordinator, said community schools partner with community organizations and resources to provide comprehensive support for schools and families. The program’s strength is that it allows schools to make their plans to help the community.

“There’s places here within Idaho that have food banks within their own schools,” Ashcraft said. “Another has, I’ve heard quite a few that have their own gardens to provide those fresh produce that the kids grow and then they also can offer it to the community. I’ve even seen up to, they’ve helped kids get a tire when their tire was popped. It really depends on your community and your community is going to drive where this goes and what it turns into.”

Ashcraft said that locally, they help direct families to resources they need, such as food, assistance, and other resources to support their families. She said having successful families equals successful students. They are formulating their own plan on what they want to focus on for their community school district.

“We are all working at chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is a real concern in all schools across our nation, it’s a big conversation. So we’ll be working with that. We also want to build our community within our school and make sure it’s a healthy environment for not just our students but our staff and their families, so that their families feel welcome and want to come in the door.”

Ashcraft said they are gathering data to better understand the community’s needs and formulate a plan for their community school. She said some of their needs include food insecurity. Once they gather enough data for a plan, they’ll send it to the coalition in Boise, who will then approve it. They will probably be able to start putting things in place by January.

Ashcraft hopes more school districts become community schools as they help the students and the community.

“I would love to see more districts join. I think they more we have working toward this the stronger our whole Magic Valley will be,” Ashcraft said.

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