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SALT LAKE CITY — In two years, Lincoln Elementary School students and their families will be able to get free dental, vision and preventive health care during the school day.
That's the hope of education leaders and community organizations, who plan to build a new community learning center in a new school building at 1090 Roberta St. The plans were laid out Thursday along with the announcement of a donation from the Tye and Noorda Foundation that will contribute to the project.
Community learning centers combine basic health services from local providers with students' regular school attendance in order to improve their ability to learn. This could include dental checkups, free glasses, and meals for students and their families, among other services. The Salt Lake City School District and the Salt Lake Education Foundation currently have several in operation.
"We're seeing what's possible when a community steps up and starts talking locally, not from the outside, about what are truly the needs to be able to break the cycle of poverty, what are the needs to address health issues for kids so they can become bright, capable learners in school," said district Superintendent McKell Withers.
The new two-story building will include classrooms and regular school facilities, and in a separate area, dental chairs, eye exam stations, adult education classrooms and a large kitchen for community events. The campus will also include buildings for special education and preschool.
The grant from the Noorda Foundation of $3,060,500 — which district leaders say is the largest single donation to a public school foundation in Utah — will help furnish the additional space and fund initial operating costs. The project overall is estimated to cost between $13 million and $14 million, according to Withers.
District leaders expect to break ground in February, with the buildings set to open in the fall of 2017.
Some medical services and after-school programs are already provided at Lincoln Elementary, but Principal Peggy Paterson said expanding those services will help improve physical and academic outcomes for students whose families can't afford medical care.
"Anyone who has had a toothache, you know how painful that it is and it's very, very hard to concentrate on what you're supposed to be doing during the day," Paterson said. "If they have really severe problems, their attendance suffers. And if I can't get them here, we can't make sure that they're accessing the best programs they can to increase their achievement."
Withers said schools already serve as community hubs, and offering extra services there makes them more easily accessible for families. This is especially important given the demographic diversity of the area, Withers said.
Last year, Lincoln enrolled 457 students in preschool through sixth grade. Eighty-two percent of those students were an ethnic minority, 47 percent were English learners and 93 percent were low income, according to the Utah State Office of Education.
"It's looking how can we then leverage those community resources and those neighborhoods to change that whole trajectory," Withers said. "It's about how can the adults work together to benefit the young people and their families, take away the barriers, and open the doors to learning and successful adulthood and citizenry."
Brittany Erikson, program officer for the Noorda Foundation, said the donors were impressed with the school's academic performance, as well as the willingness of Friends for Sight, Valley Behavioral Health, the Utah Food Bank and other organizations to serve in the center.
"With such strong and willing community partners, all they needed was the space to bring them together," Erikson said. "The services provided at this community learning center will improve not only the students' educational achievement, but the entire community. We're really excited by that."
