Team Fairmount Enhances Education Through Neighborhood Collaborative

Although (grades 3-5) and (grades K-2) serve different grade levels and are separated by several city blocks, they have had a long history of serving the Fairmont neighborhood.  Over the last two years, there have been many changes in both schools.  This school year has seen many of those changes accelerate which has resulted in a type of educational renaissance in this neighborhood, with the realization that both schools are truly one community campus we now affectionately call our neighborhood school community Team Fairmount.

Central to this community campus concept is the idea of combining the limited resources of both schools to create a vast array of services for all.  Both schools share one principal, one nurse, one literacy coach, TIME (Teachers In Multiple Environments) teachers, support specialists, and teaching partners. Some of the benefits that have developed through this sharing include the following:

1. The creation of one hour of weekly common grade lesson planning guided by the literacy coach for each grade level at Fifth and Coleman.

2.  A combined School Improvement Team (SIT) to address the needs of the students throughout the K – 5 continuum.

3.  A combined faculty meeting where communication and collaboration are stressed.

4.  A combined PTO called Parents’ Voices where important school and community matters are addressed at monthly meetings.

Evidence of renewed interest in the involvement in Fairmont schools is evident in many ways but especially through parent involvement. Parents are attending the monthly Parents’ Voices PTO meetings to learn about anti-bullying, nutrition, and other matters that concern them.  Parents' Voices and the schools joined together to host an open house celebration in September that was attended by over 250 parents; and the Second Annual Holiday Gift Basket Raffle/Fundraiser brought many students, parents, and community leaders together for a fun filled holiday event.

On any given school day, the students themselves illustrate the clear expectations of Team Fairmount. Students are learning the RI state grade level expectations daily in every classroom at Coleman and Fifth Avenue.  Students earn behavioral incentives such as lunch with the principal to promote positive self-images and encourage positive mentoring relationships.  They also model what it means to be responsible citizens as they perform safety patrol functions at the end of the day.  These are just a few examples of our renaissance and the impact it has on our students. 

Students and Staff  even display spirit on specially designated days each month.  Although our district has a dress code, the schools have spirit days when students are allowed to wear special Team Fairmount gear.  Team Fairmont gear is navy blue, which is the schools' color, and displays our schools' symbol which shows students hand-in-hand.  The hand-in-hand symbol perfectly represents how both schools are united and on spirit days the halls are filled with students and teachers alike wearing their special gear.

The Team Fairmount neighborhood concept also includes Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and other community partners such as , (NWBRV) and the Woonsocket Police Department.  Partners work hand-in-hand with Team Fairmont to provide support and services such as afterschool and summer school programming for families with students at either school.  We work collaboratively with partners to write grants supporting our educational objectives and on community service projects that have resulted in such opportunities promoting service learning and innovative hands-on curriculum for the children of Fairmount.

Terry Curtain and Charlotte Boudreau and their team at CCF, as well as contributors at Neighborworks such as Joe Garlic, Ainsley Morisseau, Margaux Morisseau, and Vimala Phongsavanh (who also serves on the Woonsocket Education Department School Committee), help make community building and support in Team Fairmount a reality.

In 2008, Fairmount was selected by the Rhode Island Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) as one of its Our Neighborhoods sites (one of ten pilots in the nation). This initiated a process of community building and planning to improve the quality-of-life for residents in the Constitution Hill, Fairmont and Main Street neighborhoods in the city of Woonsocket .  Last year, Coleman and Fifth Avenue Schools, along with our CBO partner NWBRV, received state-wide recognition for the progress we have made toward improving neighborhood quality-of-life. Team Fairmount will be recognized by LISC again this year for building community partnerships that have brought about positive growth in both the schools and community. Nationally, other groups now joining the endeavor are looking to Fairmount as an example of how small changes; one student, one parent, one school at a time can make a big impact to change a whole neighborhood.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Gerardi, Jr., Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Woonsocket Education Department

Ronald Celio, M.Ed

Principal - Fifth Avenue and Kevin K. Coleman Elementary Schools

Woonsocket Education Department

“For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people's love and concern for each other.”
Millard Fuller

"The new education must be less concerned with sophistication than compassion. It must recognize the hazards of tribalism. It must teach man the most difficult lesson of all—to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to see the image of himself.  The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community.  With such an education and with such self-understanding, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward with the vital inspiration that men need no less than food.  Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda.  It is concerned with human destiny.  Human destiny is the issue. People will respond."
Norman Cousins