Maine’s biggest city is home to one of the largest school administrative units in the state, which offers seventeen different schools covering its large and diverse population, ten of which are elementary level. One of these elementary schools, Gerald E. Talbot Community School, sits in the northwest of the city and offers a unique model to serve its high-need population. Recognized as a school that receives Title I support due to the socio-economic status of its students and families, Talbot serves around 370 students from PreK to 5th grade. Their student body comes from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

For these reasons and many more, Gerald E. Talbot applied for state funding and planning for the community school model, which began during the 2019-2020 school year. Eventually, while enduring the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they hired Community School Coordinator Kristin Rogers, who started implementing strategies during the 2021-2022 school year and beyond.

A community school model, as defined by the Coalition for Community Schools, is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Community schools exist in all regions of the United States, and their numbers are growing fast.

“We were pretty ideally suited to be a community school because we had a lot of the infrastructure that a lot of community schools have already existing. There’s a branch of the Portland Public Library that exists in our building; we have a dental clinic here, we have a public pool and playgrounds. We are pretty centrally located to our families. So, it’s kind of a natural place to be a hub for the community,” said Gerald E. Talbot Community School Coordinator Kristin Rogers. Principal Terry Young, who works closely with Rogers, adds that their high-needs population is another major reason for the shift.

In Maine, the community school model was first recognized by Maine Legislative Action of the First Regular Session of the 127th Legislature (2015-2016) in the budget bill Public Law 2015, chapter 267. At that time, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) was authorized to fund a limited number of community schools established under 20-A MRSA Chapter 333. Currently, three schools in Maine receive funding from the Maine DOE to support their community school strategies: Old Town Elementary School in Old Town, Cape Cod Hill Community School in New Sharon, and Gerald E. Talbot School in Portland.

Now in its 3rd year of implementation, Talbot has had time to try many different things after its initial needs assessment in 2019/20. They have a robust list of over 50 community partners that assist with everything from housing to physical and mental health, food security and nutrition, general assistance, academics, and enrichment. Their community school programs start before the first bell rings for the day and last long after the traditional school day ends.

Young explains that in addition to meeting students’ basic needs, enrichment opportunities also significantly impact their high-needs families.

“In a middle-class/upper-middle-class school, you have students who get a lot of enrichment opportunities because their parents can afford it. They can drive them to soccer practice, they can take them to basketball, they can take them to the library. Where you are working with a higher-needs population, students don’t have the same access. The difference is, you are bringing access to the children, to the families, into the school,” said Young.

Many of the enrichment (and extended academic) programming can be found in their extensive afterschool opportunities. Rotating on a 6- to 8-week schedule that offers something different each day, designated students stay after school for traditional academic programming like tutoring or language skills and for various enrichment opportunities like choir, yoga, student leadership, and even Nordic skiing, to name a few. Over 100 students participate in the community school afterschool programs and targeted outreach efforts by Rogers, Principal Young, and other staff members help ensure equitable access to these programs for students and families.

Pictures taken during Talbot Community School’s afterschool program, which includes the Nordic skiing club, a partnership with Portland Nordic:

In addition to its afterschool programs, one of its current language programs is a flourishing collaboration with Portland Adult Education, which aims to boost the English-speaking skills of students and their family members. Adult caregivers take language lessons in the mornings through Portland Adult Education, and their children are involved in an after-school program that combines enrichment with language immersion. The group of students and their family members will hopefully move through their respective programming year after year as a cohort, improving their English language skills together in school, at home, and in the community.

Another of the more recent and innovative programs Talbot has created is its walking school bus program, which aims to reduce chronic absenteeism and increase family engagement.

“We have a staff member as well as some community volunteers that go door to door in the morning for students who would benefit from support for their attendance or whose families could benefit from the support in getting kids to the bus stop. They knock on the door, walk them to the bus stop to make sure they get there safely and help improve attendance,” explains Rogers. “It’s both the transportation piece, as well as the mentorship of building that relationship with trusted adults in the community who are showing up every day, they care about you, know about you, and who can chat with parents and build that family connection to school as well.”

The school also hosts several community dinners throughout the school year, inviting families into the school for an educational element and, at the same time, offering a topic-related enrichment activity for students to engage in with their families. The dinners also include food for everyone to eat together and for families to take home. This year, they have hosted community dinners on the topics of internet safety, social-emotional learning, and have upcoming events for math and literacy. They aim to host at least five community dinners per year.

Looking ahead, Talbot hopes to build capacity with the staff to support and expand their community school strategies. They also hope to conduct a new needs assessment, which is something most schools do at the beginning of implementing a community school.

“Our population changes. We have different families and students than we had five or six years ago,” said Rogers. “That is a huge part of being a community school; it’s very dynamic, it’s always changing.”

Talbot is also analyzing all of its data to determine what is working and what new strategies it can incorporate in the future. One of the data points they are most excited about is a student leadership group, which they hope can help gauge how students like the different programs Talbot offers and what ideas they have for improvements.

The duo explains that over the past four years, their successes have also surfaced in the community’s excitement for the activities and programs they have offered. Instead of solely the school reaching out to make community connections on behalf of families and students, people (students, families, and community partners) approach the school.

Rogers details that not only are students approaching her to ask for different clubs and opportunities at school, but that parents are approaching her now looking for specific resources like daycare or other support. In addition, community partners who have caught on to the concept of their community school model have asked to partner with her on program ideas they have.

“When I see Talbot compared to other schools I have worked in, I feel like families see us as a resource, and they see us as a partner,” added Young.

To learn more about Gerald E. Talbot Community School, check out this video interview with Community Schools Coordinator Kristin Rogers and Principal Terry Young.

Maine DOE has welcomed Community Schools Consultant Ann Hanna (former principal of Gerald E. Talbot Community School), who is working on advancing community school strategies in interested schools across Maine by providing technical assistance and support as needed.  The Maine DOE is also currently in the process of reviewing applications for community school funding for SY 24-25, and information on that will be shared via the DOE Newsroom in the coming days.

To learn more about community schools in Maine, please contact Ann Hanna, at ann.c.hanna@maine.gov.