Milpitas: School board approves $190,000 to fund family resource center in district

By Aliyah Mohammed | amohammed@bayareanewsgroup.com

Milpitas will be getting a second family resource center at Robert Randall Elementary School later this school year to provide services and resources to families in Milpitas who need the greatest support.

The Milpitas Unified Board of Education on Aug. 23 unanimously approved $190,000 be used from the district’s building fund to create a resource center at the Randall campus at 1300 Edsel Drive in conjunction with The Health Trust, a 20-year San Jose-based foundation that works to improve healthy living in Silicon Valley. That agency was also a partner for the first resource center that opened here in 2014 at the Sunnyhills United Methodist Church campus.

The newest center will provide free programs including developmental screenings, referrals to preventative and remedial services, evidence-based parent education, oral health, nutrition programs and engagement activities for parents and children. The purpose of setting up a center at Randall is to serve the areas of the Alexander Rose Elementary School, Randall and the district office — a residential area deemed to have the lowest median income families in the city.

At the Aug. 23 board meeting, Keith Morales, The Health Trust program manager, told the panel that 70 percent of the families living in this area will qualify for the services provided at the new family resource center. He added the center will allow the district to “have kids ready from day one for school versus a career of playing catch up. We are trying to alleviate issues before they get into the school system.”

Morales said programs The Health Trust runs in 13 resource centers around the Bay Area help teach parents to nurture skills and ensure children have resiliency and success in school. An estimated 300 families with children from infants to the age of five are expected to be supported out of this resource center, district staff said.

As part of a formal agreement between The Health Trust and the school district, the district will provide the facilities and The Health Trust will handle programming and services.

In addition, the one-time cost of creating the center in a portable building located along South Park Victoria Drive in the southwest area of the Randall campus, is approximately $281,000 plus monthly Pacific Gas & Electric Co. expenses. That amount is offset by a $35,000 donation for start-up costs from the Summer Hill Apartment Communities, which will be used for furniture, computers and supplies, district staff said.

Interim Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said the center should be open in January 2017.

View article at Mercury News.