Many youth in Redwood City come from impoverished and under-resourced neighborhoods where poverty, violence, and a lack of social services often interfere with students’ academic achievement. 25% of the students at Kennedy Middle School are designated as English language learners, and over 58% are socio-economically disadvantaged.

Community schools are a powerful way to mitigate challenges and enhance our community’s collective strengths. The Community School model is focused on achieving educational success and developing the social, emotional and physical well-being of students and families within the community through identifying and closing any gaps that act as barriers to learning. 

As one of the six community schools serving the Redwood City community, Kennedy provides services and opportunities to it’s students beyond academic instruction, many of which are funded through the efforts of the Kennedy Middle School PTO:

• The Kennedy Family Center provides counseling services as well as general assistance to students and families in need.
• School community-building events, such as the Spirit Day ice cream social, teacher appreciation events, and 8th grade graduation celebrations.
• Art, music, PE and after-school Drama programs.
• Expeditionary foundation, which provides scholarships to students to participate in the Yosemite and Grand Canyon enrichment trips.
• The Maker Space at KMS, which provides students with the opportunity to explore hands-on learning in Technology and Robotics.
• Project Lead The Way, a project-based learning program that boosts classroom engagement and excitement, drives collaboration, and inspires “aha! moments” and deep comprehension.
• Technology purchases and upgrades.

We are excited to announce that our 2nd Annual Kennedy Color Run will take place on Friday, May 8, 2020 at our school campus.

Based on the success of our first event last year, we have set an ambitious fundraising goal of $20,000 for this year’s event. Our students will collect pledges for their participation in this event and 100% of what our students raise will go directly to advance the mission of our school.

Item and gift card donations to this event will be used as incentive raffle prizes to encourage our students to earn pledges. This is our school’s single-largest fundraising event of the year and we know that your help will enable us to reach our goal.