PRI’s State Scale-up (SSU) grant involves a commitment from the Kentucky Department of Education to support the expansion and sustainability of FSCS to 60 schools and communities across 12 districts.

School personnel in SSU districts describe the role of the school building as a core element of the “family, church, school” triad of community life. They emphasized generational connections to the school, and the trust in the school as a community institution, even while the perceived importance of daily attendance appeared to be waning. Where FSCS school coordinators have personal experience and deep roots in the communities themselves, they bring a deep understanding of community dynamic and accelerated capacity to establish meaningful relationships and a grow a network of partnerships. 

The relationships that FSCS school coordinators have already forged in the schools (and, in some cases, with community institutions) create a strong foundation for growing and sustaining opportunities to help students thrive. There are signs of the potential for scaling early partnership successes across schools in the SSU grant. For example, the Whitley County Health Department is emerging as a key partner with a Health Educator visiting weekly. FSCS school coordinators play a role in facilitating connections with county health, housing, and other social service agencies that can offer supports and resources, while leveraging the role of the school as a trusted community hub. 

The FSCS SSU project ensured resources and activities to enrich school-level curricula and instruction through engaging learning opportunities that expand and align with school-day instruction were made available. In addition, the project supported activities to bring experts, practitioners, and professionals to schools to share their expertise and knowledge with students. Some of these visits were to individual classrooms, some to schoolwide assemblies, and others were engagements of multiple weeks. Examples of each include an expert science instructor teaching lessons on DNA, a local author teaching reading over several weeks, and a local musician that established a residency at the school.

The SSU grant has done much to engage families that might otherwise feel removed from their children’s education, as well as provide services that benefit families and other community members. School coordinators work with school and district staff, FRYSC staff, to identify community needs, plan services, and coordinate efforts. The goals of these engagement efforts are to encourage families to participate in their students’ educational experience, build a sense of community, and increase student participation and attendance. School coordinators took the lead in identifying resources needed for students to ameliorate some of the more deleterious effects of poverty that contributed to student absenteeism such as providing laundry machines so students can have clean clothes. School coordinators also organized family engagement efforts such as organizing home visits for teachers to help teachers understand and families trust teachers. One school hosted Appalachia Night organized in collaboration with the Cooperative Christian Ministry, in which 200 community members attended to hear local musicians, learn from a blacksmith, and network with other families. These engagement strategies encourage families to connect with the school and participate in their children’s academic experience.

School coordinator roles range from program implementation to strategic coordinator. In the early days of the FSCS grant, the programmatic functions were undoubtedly valuable in helping school coordinators develop relationships and build trust within the school. As the grant progresses, a clear next step is the continued evolution of the school coordinator role from implementer to strategist and conductor. Doing so will likely involve greater differentiated support based on coordinators prior experiences and current connection to the community.