Every Student Seen: Schools at the Heart of Community

Dr. Jared Cleveland, superintendent of Springdale Schools, has spent nearly 33 years in education, including 25 as a superintendent. And as he opened the “Every Student Seen: Schools at the Heart of the Community” panel at the 2026 Restore Hope Conference, he acknowledged a reality educators across the country know well.

“Quite frankly, public schools have felt quite alone for a long time doing a lot of things.”

But looking across a room filled with people representing schools, nonprofits, government agencies, churches and community organizations, Cleveland saw something different.

“Thank God for many hands making light work.”

The conversation included Cleveland alongside Teresa Yates, Family Support Partner for Batesville School District; Chrisna Chunn, Community School Site Director for Batesville School District; and Dr. Debbie Fowlkes-Kendrick, Director of Crawford County Adult Education.

For generations, caring educators have tried to meet the needs of their students themselves.

Chunn remembers riding with her father, who worked in adult education, as he picked up students so they could work on reading, mathematics and their GEDs. She remembers shopping with her mother, a teacher, to buy food for students who might not have anything waiting for them at home.

Teachers saw needs, cared deeply and found a way to respond.

But they often did it individually.

“All these teachers, administrators, worked individually to support the needs. We all love our children, and you can't see anyone in need and not work to fix that problem. But now we can work together as a community so that we can support the needs in, on a much larger infrastructure.”

That shift from individual effort to collective action changes what is possible.

“A community school aligns perfectly with the Restore Hope model,” Chunn explained. “We believe in breaking barriers and bridging gaps, and we understand that a child can't be seen, heard, and understood unless the people around that child are also seen, heard, understood, and valued.”

The Restore Hope Model powers community-led initiatives across the U.S. and Canada through the HopeHub software and training that mobilize resources around a shared vision and shared outcomes for families.

Chunn remembers a student who kept coming to school without her glasses, despite her at times obvious vision impairment and its affect on her academic performance.

When Chunn asked where they were, the student simply told her, “I don't need them anymore.”

Her teacher knew something wasn't right and reached out through the Batesville Community School.

Through community connections, the student was able to see an eye doctor and receive a pair of glasses. But more importantly, this intervention allowed educators to build a relationship with the student's mother.

Through that relationship, they discovered that the family needed much more than glasses. By connecting the family with a 100 Families advocate and other resources, partners were able to help them access food support and stable housing.

“We were able to move that family from a crisis situation into a more stable situation.”

It is a simple example of what can happen when a school doesn't have to be the answer to every problem, but instead becomes a doorway to a community prepared to respond.

Because behind a child arriving at school without glasses, there may be a family trying desperately to hold everything together.

“This is community at work.”

Yates sees the same reality as she works directly with families in their homes.

In one family she visited, five children were sleeping on the floor. Through a relationship with a local furniture store, two sets of bunk beds were donated.

It could be easy to look at beds as something outside the responsibility of education. But Yates challenged that distinction. And she didn't just ask the business owner for beds. She invited him into the work.

“I literally let them deliver the beds to this family and let them put the beds in this family's space, and when he left that day, he was in tears and said, ‘I had no idea the impact...’”

“Explain it. Involve them," Yates encourages. People are often willing to help when they know where they fit into the needs.

For Dr. Debbie Faubus-Kendrick, the connection between stability and education extends beyond K-12 classrooms.

Through adult education, she works with parents, people experiencing homelessness, justice-involved individuals and others trying to build a more stable future.

“I think anytime you impact parents, you impact children, 'cause that's their first teacher.”

Her campus has become much more than a place to attend classes. Community partnerships have helped provide food, clothing, furniture and connections to other resources. Churches volunteer. Businesses and banks come in. Partners work together to help people address barriers that could otherwise make education feel impossible.

Some of the people walking into Faubus-Kendrick's program are homeless. For some, the meal served during class may be the only meal they receive that day. Expecting someone in that situation to simply sit down and focus on education ignores the reality they are carrying into the classroom.

“If I ask you to come in and educate, then I have to show you I love you. Let's do that first. Let's take care of everything else.”

Then comes the opportunity to learn.

“We get them stabilized and then they can learn something. Until that point, that is not gonna happen.”

Sometimes though, the barriers aren't immediately visible.

When Yates enters homes and classrooms, her goal is not simply to respond to a behavior, but to understand what may be driving it.

That same approach shapes the school’s broader prevention work. By working with the Restore Hope Model and the initiative’s family advocates, needs can be identified and addressed before a family reaches the point of an open child welfare case. Instead of crisis escalating to a hotline call, the community has an opportunity to step in earlier.

And importantly, the work is voluntary. Parents choose to participate, creating buy-in from the beginning and allowing advocates to work with families rather than simply responding to a mandate. That relationship creates space to understand what is really driving the crisis, build on the family’s strengths and work toward solutions the parent is invested in sustaining.

Rather than simply meeting an immediate need, this model creates a path toward long-term solutions that address root causes and help families build lasting stability.

One mother Yates worked with was homeless and living in a car with her child. Partners secured temporary lodging while 100 Families helped her find permanent housing. She eventually enrolled in college, while her child’s principal worked with her to keep him consistently in school.

For a school district considering this kind of collaboration, the barriers can seem immediate.

There isn't enough staff.

There isn't enough money.

There isn't enough time.

Chunn challenged that thinking.

“You're already doing it. You're already standing in this gap. You're already loving on your children.”

Educators are already buying food. Calling parents. Searching for resources. Helping students through crisis. Community organizations are already serving families. Churches, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies are already responding to needs. The opportunity is to connect that work.

“Working as an individual takes a lot more work than working as a community.”

Faubus-Kendrick has seen that change over 45 years in education and she knows where communities can begin.

“Start with the resources. Start with the people that are in your community, because you all have to work together.”

Cleveland believes education remains one of the most important forces shaping a child's future.

But education cannot exist separately from the life that child walks into the building carrying.

His goal in Springdale is to help every student discover where they can succeed.

“I challenge the schools across the state and across the nation that I can speak to, to help every child find his or her genius because I guarantee you every child is a genius.”

Doing that requires communities willing to respond together.

Teachers can teach. Community organizations can bring their expertise. Businesses can provide resources. Churches can serve. Families can be connected to people equipped to help. And HopeHub can help turn individual acts of compassion into coordinated support.

For Cleveland, seeing that collaboration happening gave him something educators need, too: hope.

“Having Restore Hope and having others come together with the same mission, and that is to help children, that makes my heart feel better, and I know that we've got a better future.”