Richard Riley Award
Community Learning Centers for the 21st Century
Presented by:
Bruce Guadalupe Community School
This year, the AAF jury made the unanimous decision to mark the Bruce Guadalupe Community School (BGCS) as an entry of "special distinction" given the school's unique role within the community. BGCS, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has had a broad and positive impact on its community including the development of a series of robust partnerships that require sophisticated funding streams. The schools is, as one member of the jury noted, a "community school in the full sense of the word; created in, by and for the community."
Located on the multi-service campus of the United Community Center (UCC), the school stretches over five blocks that include a fitness and health center, a community auditorium and art center, the El Sol Café, the Latino Geriatric Center, the Sixth Street Academy (alternative middle school) and Human Services office, the UCC US-Bank Village (subsidized housing for seniors), as well as three large gymnasiums. The entire campus is truly inter-generational, providing pre-kindergarten classes to geriatric support to senior citizens.
Bruce Guadalupe Community School (BGCS) is located in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee, where a majority of residents come from low-income Hispanic backgrounds. BGCS is a Milwaukee Public School charter, operated by the United Community Center at the UCC campus. The unique dynamics of the school, a result of BGCS's affiliation with United Community Center (UCC), have created a one-of-a-kind community-based, multi-service, educational model.
The UCC Board of Directors has organized six capital campaigns, raising more than $12 million over the past 17 years. In1991, the building campaign raised $2.4 million to create the Bruce-Guadalupe Elementary School on the UCC campus. This was the third building campaign in the organization's history and the most ambitious one to date. In 1999 UCC began another campaign to raise $5.5 million to construct the Bruce Guadalupe Middle School which opened in April 2002.
Currently, the Bruce Guadalupe Preschool and Elementary School, as well as the Bruce Guadalupe Middle School, combine for an attendance of more than 700 students on the UCC campus. Approximately 80 percent of students come from low-income families, and most of these students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Forty-two percent of these students have parents that obtained a middle school education or less; 58 percent have completed high school.