Setting a Bigger Table

As Director of Community Schools with United Way of Greater Knoxville , Adam Fritts is helping redefine how schools serve students and families, by listening first. His day-to-day work is grounded in collaboration, trust, and the belief that community solutions must be built with the people most affected.

In this Q&A, Adam shares what it means to lead a community schools strategy from the ground up, how impact is measured beyond test scores, and why real partnership starts with making space for every voice. His insights reflect a model rooted in equity, responsiveness, and the belief that thriving neighborhoods require connected, empowered communities. 

What does leading a community school effort look like day to day, and what does it require?  

Leading a community schools effort is not entirely different than when I was leading it at a site level. I find that the requirement of listening to the voices of families and schools – while also factoring in the passions of our business and non-profit community and the experiences of our United Way community schools team –requires the same collaborative practice that I ask my coordinators to utilize. That scope of voice then requires me to be increasingly more willing to leverage my position on their behalf advocating both for the things that they need, and the value to be found in their voice.

How do you measure success in a community school, and what kind of impact have you seen?  

Community schools’ success must be measured through the eyes of each school's stakeholders with a nod to a community's history. While we obviously want to see academic improvement, success is more often measured in the existence of relationships, programs, and support that did not exist before. When a kindergartener starts school with access to a crosswalk, or a mentor, or an enrichment program that wasn’t there 5 years ago, that family is walking into a school that has been impacted in some way by leadership from families and neighbors that came along before them. Many neighborhoods and communities work like that, and community schools are a way to ensure that all do.

Can you share an example that shows how a community school responds differently than a traditional model?  

Historically, most challenges are addressed the same way no matter the community; however, when we do that, we absolve ourselves from both knowing those affected and taking the time to identify the root cause or what assets already exist. Some of us may have heard that in their day, our grandparents walked uphill to school both ways, but they did so in a time with less traffic, fewer 4-lane roads, and smaller school zones. You can’t address chronic absenteeism without acknowledging those societal changes and starting the remedy with things already at our disposal like adding a bus stop or repainting a crosswalk and doing so before assuming a caregiver is at fault. We want to start all our responses by counting people as our neighbors and responding to them how we would want to be responded to.

What does real partnership with families and local organizations look like in your work?  

Partnership inside our community schools must be characterized by VERY big tables built on collaboration and not delegation. The challenges that these schools and communities face cannot be worked around. They must be worked through, with all of the people affected by them at the table. That means discussion and sometimes disagreement, but always collaboration. We don’t want to just be co-located in the same building. We want our partnerships to start by acknowledging that they are relationships between people who care about the same place. Our team is responsible for facilitating those relationships, and those relationships must exist before you can address the challenges.  

Why do you believe this model is essential right now — for students, families, and schools?  

Community schools' success starts in a community or neighborhood. It is essential that every community and school has a mechanism for promoting collaboration at a grassroots level, and Community Schools is a proven strategy for achieving that in places where it hasn’t historically been present. We have seen what happens when communities are dependent upon the whims of those outside of them for support. Community schools are a model of solving community challenges by focusing on the assets that already exist and increasing the number of people who truly care about the challenges that remain. That is a model that is essential yesterday, today, and tomorrow.