Students, educators, parents and advocates from around the city rallied in Foley Square on May 21 to support the creation of more community schools.

UFT Vice President Karen Alford, who spearheads the UFT’s Community Learning Schools Initiative, invoked the U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in public schools in her remarks at the rally. “On the 60th anniversary of Brown, we have to be vigilant,” she said. “Our schools are community assets, and we have to make sure they are the hub of our communities. Community schools benefit all of us.”

The UFT supports 16 community schools, which partner with local organizations to offer services — from afterschool programs to health clinics — for the entire community. Other organizations, including the Harlem Children’s Zone, have their own networks of community schools.

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to create 100 additional community schools by the end of his first term in office as part of his effort to address educational inequities and increase college readiness.

Those at the rally said they would keep him to his word.

“We know community schools work for students, parents and the community,” said Natasha Capers, the co-emcee for the rally and a parent leader of the Coalition for Educational Justice. “We want to see the promise fulfilled.”

The coalition has recommended that the city phase in 100 community schools over three years and provide $50 million for the initiative to succeed.

Rosa Almonte, an 8^th-grade math teacher at PS/MS 188, a Community Learning School on the Lower East Side, attested to the benefits and empowerment that the model brought to students and their families. “Our success reflects the shared leadership of community education,” she said. “The extended day and wraparound services address the inequities facing our students.”

Rally participants held up paper leaves inscribed with all the things that a community school could offer: food pantries, legal services, sports and mental health clinics, to name a few. Mothers came with young children in strollers from Brooklyn and the Bronx to lend their voices to the cause.  

The rally later moved to the steps of the Department of Education’s headquarters, where Deputy Mayor Richard Buery told those assembled: “You have a partner in Mayor de Blasio, who is committed to making sure that the American dream becomes a reality by building schools that support all children.”