When Carbondale Elementary School District 95 launched its Community Schools initiative, the goal wasn’t simply to improve academics. It was to reimagine what a school can be: a place where barriers are removed, trust is built, and families are embraced with compassion that ripples outward through the community.

“We want kids to walk in our doors rested, fed, clothed, and ready to learn,” explained coordinator Markida Roper, a lifelong Carbondale resident and social worker. “If they don’t have those things, learning becomes almost impossible. So our job is to make sure they do.”

The Community Schools model identifies five focus areas — health, food, housing, family education, and after-school programming — and brings resources directly to students and families. That means creating a vision of having medical and dental care provided on campus, housing support to prevent homelessness, and food distribution programs that reach families where they are.

One small example became a turning point last summer. When families couldn’t make it to grab-and-go meal pickups, staff didn’t just shrug. They picked up the phone, asked what was wrong, and found a way to deliver the food. Soon, neighbors began showing up not just for their own children, but for other families who couldn’t make it. “Compassion is contagious,” said coordinator Marilynn Ross. “You could feel it spreading through the community.”

That compassion often becomes life-changing. Families have written to thank the district, describing how the extra meals determined what they could put on the dinner table. Others have been guided through housing crises, or taken shopping for clothes so their children could start the school year with dignity and confidence. “It’s a calling,” Ross said simply. “Not a job.”

Much of the program’s power comes from the people leading it. Coordinators Ross, Roper, and Stacye Saunders all have long histories with the district and the Carbondale community. Assistant Superintendent Brooke Kensler and Superintendent Janice Pavelonis emphasize that those ties are a “superpower,” building trust that makes families willing to ask for help.

“These women are highly educated, deeply connected to Carbondale, and their hearts are in the right place,” Pavelonis said. “That combination makes the work move faster. People know them. They trust them.”

That trust is not incidental — it’s the foundation of everything. Pavelonis describes the initiative as a unifying effort that brings together teachers, administrators, aides, secretaries, and parents around a common mission. “This is everyone’s work,” she said. “For once, we’re all on the same page, putting kids and families at the center.”

The district is one of only a handful in downstate Illinois to secure a major Community Schools grant — roughly $1 million per year for five years. That funding ensures that support services aren’t just occasional acts of goodwill, but a sustainable system. At the same time, leaders are already strategizing about how to extend the work beyond the life of the grant.

But even more than funding, it is vision that sustains the effort. “For years, we knew what we needed to do,” Pavelonis said. “When the grant came along, we were ready. The pump was primed. We already had the relationships and the community support.”

In the end, the story of Carbondale’s Community Schools is less about programs and more about people. It’s about families who step up for one another, staff who see their work as a calling, and children who walk into school knowing they are cared for.

As we were closing our conversation, I mused, “Education may be the greatest lever for social mobility we have,” and Pavelonis quickly reflected, “But it only works if children can show up as their best selves. That’s what this is about. It’s not just an academic effort — it’s a story about a community effort.”