Shoreline Unified School District took its first step toward a broad expansion of programs beyond regular school hours that could encompass everything from mental health services and aftercare to adult education. The district secured a $200,000 state grant to pay the salary of a new Director of Community School, who will help widen the reach of the district’s schools by planning new partnerships with local agencies and increase parent engagement. Next year, Shoreline aims to get another grant triple the size to begin enacting those programs. California allocated nearly $3 billion for community school grants last year to help hasten the social recovery from the pandemic for schools where “economic and social barriers to learning are prevalent.” The grants have been described as among the most flexible sources of state funding available to public schools, and Shoreline officials said theirs could pay for a wish list of extended programs intended to support students and families. “The thing that I’m excited about with this position is there are all these ideas that we want to explore, but nobody has had the time,” Superintendent Adam Jennings said. “We were trying to do those things, and this grant came along.” Over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, the planning grant will fund the new director position, which Shoreline trustees unanimously approved last Thursday. It will also pay for professional development and a series of meetings with staff and parents to discuss future programs. Another $200,000 grant went to San Rafael City Schools, but the Sausalito Marin City School District got more than $700,000 in community school implementation funds. Next year, Shoreline will apply for a similarly large implementation grant, which would fund the programs for five years. Mr. Jennings listed a summer program, after-school care, health services, parent engagement workshops and adult education courses in subjects like food service and early childhood education as possible programs to fund. The district’s family advocates, Angelica Sanchez and Glenda Mejia, already help engage Spanish-speaking parents with school activities and communications, and Ms. Mejia said they will play an important role in getting parents involved in more ambitious programs. “Many community schools operate year-round, morning to evening, and serve children and adults,” the state’s grant website said. The grants were targeted to schools that suffered disproportionately during the pandemic and had existing “barriers to learning.” More than half of the students at a qualifying district had to be English learners, foster children, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Alternatively, a district could qualify if it had higher than state average dropout or suspension rates, or high rates of child homelessness. More than 60 percent of Shoreline students are English learners, qualify for free meals, or are foster or homeless children. Many of the district’s metrics for student success show a divide between white and Latino students. At Tomales High School, about 4 percent of white students are chronically absent, data from last year showed,  while nearly 10 percent of Latino students are. Chronic absenteeism should be a major focus of the community school programs, Mr. Jennings said. “These programs would help with that,” he said. “One of the reasons we have absenteeism is because our kids have to travel pretty far to get to their health appointments.” A health clinic might not be feasible on any of Shoreline’s small campuses, he said, but the district could partner with Petaluma Health Center to bring a mobile unit to school. The district will prefer bilingual applicants for the new Director of Community School position, Mr. Jennings said, and the candidate will need to be familiar with the Shoreline community or communities like it. The position will be posted at www.edjoin.org/shorelineunified.