In its first year as a state-recognized community school, Sycamore Junior High in Anaheim opened a two room community center. Staff coordinated monthly campus visits for a mobile dental unit and organized a monthly food pantry for the neighboring community. But mostly, explains Araceli Huerta, community school coordinator for Sycamore, they listened. They listened to parents, students, other staff and community members.
“The students frigging loved it,” Huerta said, speaking in between a brief campus tour and a parent meeting on the first Tuesday of the summer break. “The students love being heard.”
