Cheryl Arteaga, a site coordinator for Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada, poses in the CIS room at O’Callaghan Middle School Friday, Aug. 2, 2020.
Monday, Aug. 31, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Cheryl Arteaga knows the feeling of leaving for school on an empty stomach because there was no food to eat. She’s all too familiar with running on the playground with shoes that have holes.
Growing up, her family lived in poverty and frequently went without food or essential hygiene products.
Arteaga is a site coordinator for Communities in Schools Nevada at Mike O'Callaghan MS i3 Learn Academy, a CCSD magnet middle school in northeast Las Vegas, where she helps students who face many of the challenges she did growing up.
“I pretty much had to raise my sister, and the only time we got new clothes was when my grandmother took us to the store. I wish (Communities in Schools) was around then,” Arteaga said.
Communities in Schools Nevada is a nonprofit that works with schools across the state, including more than 50 in the Clark County School District. It provides resources like food, clothing and counseling, serving more than 50,000 students in CCSD and 70,000 statewide.
Site coordinators such as Arteaga work with school leadership, teachers and staff to provide students with academic assistance, behavioral intervention, family engagement, mental and physical health services, college and career preparation and basic needs like food and clothing.
Tami Hance Chief Executive Officer of Communities In School (CIS)
And when schools shut down last spring because of the pandemic, the organization continued to provide services to needy students, many of whom are part of families hit hard by the economic downturn.
When officials at O’Callaghan were unable to reach students, who were supposed to transition to remote learning, Arteaga went into the neighborhood knocking on doors for home visits.
She was able to assess their needs, finding that many lacked the technology for digital learning — hence why they were unreachable. She coordinated for them to receive Chromebooks.
Communities in Schools also teamed with Spread the Word Nevada, a children’s literacy nonprofit, and the Public Education Foundation, another education nonprofit, to deliver 25,000 totes of hygiene products, books and school supplies to students after schools closed.
At the beginning of a typical school year, teachers send Arteaga about 60 to 70 students who they observe needing the basics of food, clothes or counseling. You need a school official's referral to be part of the program.
When school resumed remotely last week, another problem quickly emerged. Even though O’Callaghan was distributing food to students on campus, many families didn’t have transportation to collect the meals.
So Arteaga frequently delivered food and supplies to the 45 students in the program.
“They are stuck at home with no transportation. Nobody is going to drive across town for one sack of lunch,” Arteaga said.
Scott Fligor, the O’Callaghan principal, said it was easy to identify students who needed help when they were walking around campus. But it’s a significant challenge with distance education, which could last through the calendar year.
If a student fails to participate in online learning for two consecutive days, and the school is getting no response from the family in any capacity, Communities in Schools is asked to conduct a home visit.
“That’s all we can do is go out and knock on the door,” Fligor said. “We have records of who we assisted last year, and we will continue to keep those kids on our radar,” he said.
Communities in Schools relies on donations, leaning heavily on Three Square food bank to keep their supply closest full. They also use school-generated funds from an on-campus store to purchase food, schools supplies and hygiene products to give students in need.
Tami Hance-Lehr, the CEO of Communities in Schools Nevada, said monetary donations have decreased due to the economic toll of the coronavirus, but “we know Las Vegas has a heart and they’re always going to be there for us and our kids.”
Site coordinators and volunteers with Communities in Schools collect and catalog donations during their annual Fill The Bus school supply drive, Friday July 31, 2020.
That was witnessed last month at the annual “Fill the Bus” supply drive, where the program received about $90,000 in supplies and cash from community members.
Hance-Lehr credits the many local volunteers who braved the heat and pandemic to work the supply drive. Those partnerships are pivotal in allowing the program to continue to help underprivileged children, she said.
“By coming together, we were able to collectively create so much more,” she said.
Community members can donate to Communities in Schools Nevada at cisnevada.org/donate.
