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Family Center Director Always Finding New Challenges MARY VIEW-SCHNEIDER REMEMBERS THE DAY WELL. It was about five years ago and the 17-year teaching veteran was thinking seriously about taking a leave of absence from the classroom. Although the Elizabeth Elementary School teacher felt she had been and still was an effective instructor, View-Schneider wanted to do more. "I was comfortable with my teaching skills, but I felt I wanted to do more for students and families outside of the classroom," she said. It was then that she was presented with an unique opportunity that would allow her to combine her teaching experience with her desire to help others outside the classroom. That opportunity came in the form of the Urban Learning Centers, an urban school model that aims to create a learning environment where a high quality of instruction is supported by strong connections to the community. View-Schneider was approached by the late United Teachers Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein and others to be part of a team that would help develop what was to become the Urban Learning Centers design at Elizabeth. "I was really excited about taking on this new role," View-Schneider said. "I've worked a lot with parents so I had a lot of experience with this kind of work and the structure of the design really gave me some hope." The Urban Learning Centers, developed with the support of the New American Schools Development Corporation, represent a public-private collaboration of the Los Angeles Unified School District, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Educational Partnership. The ULC design is composed of three parts: Teaching and Learning, Governance and Management, and Learning Supports. View Schneider quickly assumed a leadership role and took on the challenge of developing ULC's Learning Supports component. Learning Supports aims to restructure and integrate school and community resources to improve the health and well-being of students and families. The idea is to enable students to learn by creating a seamless structure of support from within and outside of the school building. "A lot kids come to school with some serious barriers to learning," View-Schneider said. "When a child is having trouble learning, many times it's a family problem not just a classroom problem." After establishing the core design at Elizabeth Learning Center, View-Schneider then took on her next challenge -- that of director of the school's Family Center. As director for the past five years, View-Schneider has guided the Elizabeth Family Center from a set of plans and ideas to essentially the nerve center of the Learning Supports structure. The Family Center offers adult education classes, student, family, and marriage counseling, and employs a social worker and a special-education psychologist, among other services. "We deal with not only students' problems but with a lot of parenting problems as well," she said. "By educating parents we're really going to see better student achievement down the road." View-Schneider believes her work is far from done. In fact, in the near future, the Family Center is working to establish a Head Start program on campus and is looking to increase its literacy program, View-Schneider said. "This is a community I really care about," she said. "We have wonderful students and families."