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  • Santa Ana Unified School District

    Community Schools Strategic Initiative

    Vision and Core Values

    Vision: To collaboratively transform our schools into inclusive, supportive environments where every child’s holistic development is prioritized, ensuring they grow from prenatal stages to becoming empowered, community-oriented global citizens.

    Mission: Engage our entire community in the educational process to empower all stakeholders as shared decision-makers and problem-solvers, fostering equity and holistic development for all students. Together, we will continuously improve and learn, addressing challenges and creating solutions hand-in-hand.

    Core Values:

    • Engagement: Involving 100% of our community in the educational process.
    • Empowerment: Empowering students, parents, and community members to be shared decision-makers and problem-solvers.
    • Equity: Ensuring equitable outcomes for all students and community members.
    • Holistic Development: Prioritizing the physical, cognitive, language, social, ethical, and psychological development of every child.

    Explanation of Our Logo

     

    Our logo symbolizes our commitment to the community and the holistic development of every child.

    • The Tree: Represents growth, nurturing, and the interconnectedness of our community.
    • The Hands: Signify the entire support system, uplifting and supporting our community. Just as a hand is made up of different components, each equally important, our community is sustained by the collective effort of various stakeholders.
    • The Heart: Symbolizes passion for the work, love for our community, and the personal nature of this mission.
    • The Figures Under the Tree: Represent the development of a child from baby to actualized global citizen, showcasing the holistic growth from prenatal stages to adulthood.
    • The Colors:
      • Blue: Trust and stability.
      • Green: Growth and development.
      • Orange: Creativity and enthusiasm.

    Overview

    The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) has 15 community schools, including 13 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. These schools are committed to implementing the community schools strategy aimed at creating equitable, racially just, and culturally responsive educational environments. They embody the district's commitment to providing holistic and inclusive education, ensuring that every student has the support and resources needed to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Through the community schools framework, SAUSD continues to foster strong partnerships and collaborative efforts that benefit students, families, and the broader community.

    Our Community Schools serve students from pre-Kindergarten through high school with a holistic approach, prioritizing the physical, cognitive, language, social, ethical, and psychological development of every child. This strategy integrates academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement. The California Community Schools (CA CS) Framework, adopted in 2022, is central to this approach. 

     

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    CA Fundamentals

     

    Community schools are a research-based, comprehensive school transformation strategy where educators, local community members, families, and students collaborate to enhance conditions for student learning and healthy development. Together, they organize both in-school and out-of-school resources, supports, and opportunities, enabling young people to thrive.

    Community schools have a long history, existing for over a century. Today, modern community schools focus on whole-child practices and structures that support the holistic development of children. Recognizing that children spend about 80% of their time in their communities during any given school year, it’s clear that to truly transform our schools and communities, we must work together. This collective effort ensures that both educational environments and community contexts are aligned to foster student learning and healthy development.