A delegation from the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education in South Korea visited Windsor Central High School on Thursday to tour the facility and learn about how Windsor has employed the community school strategy. That is where the school becomes a hub and an organized way to meet the needs of students and their families by leveraging partnerships inside and outside the school.
The South Korean delegation toured the WCHS music suite, business incubator, manufacturing, and agriculture areas, seeing how students are already creating goods used by members of our community, and how community resources are helping students learn.
“It seems like this school has great teachers and great support from the community. The community and schools work together and collaborate, and that is impactful for improving the students’ levels. It helps the community and the future plans of the students,” said Sungh Wa Jung, International Program Coordinator from the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, translating for Byung Ik Cho, Director of School Support for the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.
“Windsor has been a long-time partner with Binghamton University in this work. They’ve taken this strategy and brough many voices forward. They listen to teachers, they listen to students, they listen to their families, and they’ve built out programming that addresses the needs of children,” said Luann Kida, Executive Director of Binghamton University Community Schools.
“We know we are a hub for our families here and those connections to our community, to our families, are huge. Every decision we make are based on what are our families needs and and then how do we help support them here in our building,” said Heather Noyd, Windsor CSD career counselor.
The South Korean group is working with Binghamton University to learn more about the community school strategy. They visited a school in New York City earlier this week before coming to Windsor to see how rural district implements the Community School strategy.