Warren County Public Schools will see nearly $1.5 million in additional funding to expand community and business partnerships over the next five years.

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence announced last week that WCPS will join the committee’s Kentucky Community Schools Initiative, funding WCPS along with 20 other Kentucky districts.

Tracey Young, WCPS director of grants and community outreach and author of the district’s application, said the “community schools model” of the committee works by first identifying the needs of students and community stakeholders then finding relevant partners to serve them.

“As a community, we pull together the family resource coordinators, the school personnel, the business and community partners, and we try the best we can to address those barriers,” Young said.

Young said a needs assessment will determine barriers at each school, not just the district as a whole. WCPS said in a statement that the model improves student outcomes, increases college enrollment and contributes to student well-being.

Jennings Creek Elementary School and Henry F. Moss Middle School were chosen to fully implement the community schools model due to their diverse, high-need student population. Aspects of the model will also be implemented across other schools, Young said.

The committee will study the model’s impact at Jennings Creek and Moss to better understand student outcomes and how the model can be translated elsewhere.

Young said the district already has over 160 community and business partners, offering field trips, career shadowing, campus tours, internships and more. Giving kids the chance to peer beyond the classroom can be “transformational,” she said.

Young said the district’s hefty experience with community engagement likely made them a strong contender for the committee.

“Four years ago, we had 264 kids across our district who had career and college experiences outside the walls of the classroom,” Young said. “Due to our partnerships, this past year alone we had 3,500 students with college and career experiences for a total of over 6,000 experiences for those students.”

Superintendent Rob Clayton said the funding will be a “game changer” for the district’s community engagement. He said the district has long known that the task of uplifting students “cannot be done alone.”

“This is really just going to catapult us as we expand those partnerships that remove barriers for our kids,” Clayton said.

Clayton said WCPS will likely use some of the funds to hire someone focused on expanding partnerships across the district, but for now, they’re “still celebrating the news.”

“We know the students that struggle most in our schools or any school, in most cases, are facing barriers that complicate their ability to find the same level of success,” Clayton said. “Through this grant, we’re going to be able to devote more attention to how, as an example, our family resources and youth service coordinators are able to meet the needs of students and their families.”

The initiative is supported by a state steering committee and the University of Kentucky College of Education Center for Evaluation, according to a press release from the committee.

The Prichard Committee was awarded a $47 million research grant from the U.S. Department of Education last year and plans to channel $30 million directly into the Kentucky education system, the release stated.

“Our expansion to include new districts in the Kentucky Community Schools Initiative underscores our commitment to improving student futures through community-driven solutions,” Committee President Brigitte Blom said in a release. “Each selected district shows promise and shares our vision. We are eager to see the positive change that unfolds in these communities.”