In February, 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). This comes after UNITE-LA's role in co-creating solutions and leading efforts in school recruitment, application revisions, the creation of a scoring rubric to better align with the state's Community Schools framework, scorer trainings and the synthesizing of application scores and narratives from August to December 2023. The CSSC is thrilled to welcome this new and 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 Complex and Lexington Primary Center.

These schools have been included in the 2023-2024 California Community School Partnership Program (CCSPP) implementation grant. Additional funding from the state will support comprehensive staffing, partnerships, training and equitable classroom practices to ensure our community schools effectively address increased student and family learning outcomes. Our Cohort 5 schools will join the existing 55 CSI Cohort 1-4 schools in the 2024-25 school year. Community Schools is a proven approach that leads to equitable, meaningful and transformative growth. We are excited to expand this work to more LAUSD schools!