My name is Cenia Arenas, and I serve as the Communities In Schools (CIS) Site Coordinator at Williams Ledger Elementary School. I have worked in Copperas Cove ISD for the past three years. Before joining CCISD, I worked in Killeen ISD in several roles, including Bilingual Teacher's Aide, ISS/PBS (Positive Behavioral Support) Aide, and ultimately as a Bilingual Parent Liaison (PCOC in CCISD). Those experiences have allowed me to see firsthand the challenges many families face and the importance of providing students with support beyond academics.
I was disappointed after reading the recent article regarding the district's decision not to renew the CIS contract because it did not reflect many of the realities that I witness every day. I can only speak from my own experience, but I believe it is important to share what CIS truly provides for students and families.
During my first year at Williams Ledger Elementary, I received approximately 100 parent consent forms from families requesting CIS services. Last school year, that number grew to nearly 300. To me, that growth represents the trust families placed in our program and the value they saw in the services we provided. It also demonstrates that the need for CIS continues to grow.
One statement in the article particularly stood out to me from the article I read was:
"We still have federally budgeted money for student clothing. This isn't a cutting of service. It is a difference in the delivery of service."
While I understand that funding exists for students identified as homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act, many families who struggle financially do not qualify under that definition. Their children still come to school needing shoes, clothing, hygiene items, and other basic necessities.
At Williams Ledger Elementary, which serves more than 500 students, accidents happen every day, especially among our younger students. Children often need a change of clothes due to spills or restroom accidents. Instead of asking parents to leave work, teachers and the school nurse frequently contacted me first. Because CIS maintained a clothing closet stocked through donations, we were able to provide students with clean clothing and underwear immediately, allowing them to remain in school and continue learning instead of losing instructional time.
Our clothing closet was made possible through donations from parents, teachers, community organizations, and clothing collected from our school's lost and found. At the end of each school year, I personally sorted, washed, and organized those items so they could benefit another child the following year. While these items were gently used, they were clean, well-cared for, and often made a tremendous difference for families who simply could not afford new clothing.
Unfortunately, I have also worked with students who came to school wearing shoes with holes, shoes that were several sizes too large because they belonged to an older sibling, or shoes that were too small because purchasing a new pair simply was not financially possible. These situations affected their safety, comfort, and ability to participate in physical education and other school activities.
One of the most heartbreaking parts of my job involved children entering foster care. Whenever I learned that a student would be leaving, I prepared a backpack filled with school supplies, coloring books, new socks, new underwear, several changes of clothing, and a small toy. I often never saw those students again, but I wanted them to leave knowing someone cared about them during an incredibly difficult time.
Winter clothing is another significant need. Although the district provided donated jackets, hoodies, gloves, and hats, those donations could never meet the needs of a campus with more than 500 students. Again, our CIS clothing closet helped bridge that gap by allowing us to provide warm clothing to children throughout the winter.
The article also discussed the Angel Tree program. Throughout my time at Williams Ledger, my primary contact for Angel Tree has always been Ms. Shelley Brown, whose dedication and support have been invaluable.
Last year, I coordinated the largest Angel Tree effort our campus has ever had, serving more than 100 students and their siblings, including children who were not yet school-aged and siblings attending other campuses. I began preparing for Angel Tree during the last week of September so sponsor information would be ready before Thanksgiving, giving donors time to shop during Black Friday sales.
The majority of our sponsors came from teachers, school staff, parents, local community members, friends, family members, and generous supporters from across the country. Last year, teachers and families from Martin Walker Elementary and Fairview/Jewell Elementary also sponsored many of our Williams Ledger students. Sponsors either purchased gifts directly or mailed them to me, and I personally wrapped gifts that arrived unwrapped. This level of coordination required months of planning and countless volunteer hours.
Thanksgiving assistance worked similarly. While the district distributed a limited number of donated Thanksgiving baskets, they never met the needs of all our families. During my first year, I used CIS funds to purchase seven turkeys while food items were purchased through funds raised during a Kendra Scott fundraiser. In later years, Cove House donated seven to ten turkeys, and Williams Ledger staff donated the remaining meal items. Whenever transportation was a barrier, I personally delivered Thanksgiving meals to families' homes.
Food insecurity extends beyond students receiving breakfast and lunch at school. Many families have younger children at home who do not receive school meals. When parents contacted me asking for help, I worked closely with Cove House and other community food banks to ensure entire households received enough food for approximately two weeks. Families did not abuse these services. They reached out only after exhausting every other option.
Many of these conversations happened privately because parents were embarrassed to ask for help. Confidentiality was essential. I believe much of the work CIS performs goes unnoticed because we protect the dignity of the families we serve.
Families also reached out for hygiene items such as shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and feminine hygiene products. Menstrual products were especially requested because they are expensive, and many of our middle elementary students had already begun menstruating. While CIS funds covered some of these purchases, I frequently purchased these items myself when our budget was exhausted.
Another major responsibility involved connecting families with community resources. I spent countless hours searching for dental care, vision services, eyeglasses, utility assistance, housing resources, grants, and emergency financial support. Since vision vouchers became unavailable several years ago due to funding reductions, locating affordable eye care has become increasingly difficult.
Despite operating with a very limited budget, CIS was able to maximize every dollar by building strong partnerships throughout our community. Organizations that supported our students included:
- The American Legion Jack D. Levy Post 573
- Killeen and Cove Lions Clubs
- Veterans Helping Veterans Star Group
- Great Place Thrift Shop
- Cove House
- Williams Ledger Elementary staff, parents, and community volunteers
Each of these partners donated money, food, clothing, school supplies, backpacks, Thanksgiving meals, and other essential resources that directly benefited our students.
This past school year, our school marshals, Mr. Sanchez and Ms. Sanchez, went above and beyond to support our work. They introduced me to Ms. Mays, who shared the needs of our CIS program on social media. As a result, our community responded with generous donations. Since we lacked storage space, Jessie and Nichole coordinated with their supervisor to allow us to use a room at the Marshal's Office to store these donations. Their kindness enabled us to continue serving families throughout the year.
The work of Communities In Schools extends far beyond what many people see. Much of it happens quietly after hours, behind the scenes, through phone calls, emails, grant applications, donation requests, home visits, and countless conversations with families in crisis. Our goal has always been to remove barriers so students can focus on learning.
I respectfully ask that district leadership fully consider the tremendous impact CIS has had on students and families before concluding that these services can simply be replaced. While some individual resources may continue to exist, the relationships, coordination, advocacy, and individualized support provided by CIS cannot easily be replicated.
Thank you for taking the time to read my perspective and for considering the experiences of those of us who work directly with students and families every day.
Sincerely,
Cenia Arenas
Communities In Schools Site Coordinator
Williams Ledger Elementary
I want to address a few items from the article regarding the end of Communities In Schools (CIS) in Copperas Cove ISD (CCISD).
First, according to the article, "staff on CCISD campuses had contact or provided assistance in some way to 950 students." I know that the article states that number came from a press release from CIS, however the number is inaccurate. The high school required a case management count of 250 students. The remaining nine Site Coordinators were required to case manage 100 students each. That also does not cover the number of students we served that were not case managed. I alone case-managed 140 students this school year. That number varied year to year, but never once in my tenure with CCISD did I only work with 100 students. That number also does not include the school-wide services or the crisis care we provided as needed.
Second, Dr. Hawkins said that there is federally budgeted funds for student clothing. This is not a school-wide or district-wide budget. CCISD received Title 1 funding to provide basic needs assistance to our homeless population. Those funds can be used for clothing or for hygiene products and the like. However, those funds cannot be used for the general student population. Students who were not homeless (MVP) received clothing from CIS. School nurses were directed not to keep clothing on campus, so students who dirtied their clothing due to bathroom accidents, nose bleeds, spilled milk, etc. came to us for a change. Parents were contacted, but oftentimes they were unavailable to bring a change of clothing. Without our intervention, they would sit in soiled clothing indefinitely. There were other high-risk students who parents could not provide for regularly. My campus had one student who would come to school in clothing that did not fit or was already soiled with human/animal urine. I spent a great deal of my CIS budget, and many times my own personal money, to make sure she had clean clothing to change into at school. Staff knew that I kept a shelf in my wall locker with clothing specifically for her. I also kept a hairbrush for days she needed to brush her hair, which was often. In addition, we provide shoes to students who have damaged or improperly sized footwear. Teachers would contact me to let me know a student could not continue with their current shoes and I would go out to purchase the correct size for them. Many times these students were not even on my caseload, but it was not acceptable, in my opinion, to have students go without. Occasionally we would receive boxes of jackets or hoodies from Shelley Brown. A few times we were able to get donations of thick winter coats. Unfortunately, this was not enough to cover all the students who needed winter weather gear and CIS would use our budgets to provide more coats/gloves/hats to students in need. Many times these students were not on my caseload as well, but I could not have a student go cold. All of the clothing and shoes we have are included on the CIS inventory sheet, so there will be none left over once we leave the campus.
Third, both men stated that there are very similar jobs to what CIS does on campus. However, that could not be further from the truth. The Parent and Community Outreach Coordinator (PCOC) has specific duties that are outlined by Title 1. The PCOC does not handle student basic needs or facilitate small groups. The PCOC job description for CCISD can be found at https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=c0442d8900805ed3&from=shareddesktop_copy. This means that CCISD plans to incorporate extra assigned duties, possibly in violation of Title 1 regulations.
Fourth, the article addresses Stuff the Bus. I personally never managed the school supplies from that event. House Creek school counselors had taken over that duty before I arrived in 2015. However, I did pick up the school supplies and bring them to the campus. I also supplemented what Stuff the Bus did not provide. Many times we received items we did not need and had a deficit in things that were desperately needed. The most common item students needed but were not provided with were headphones. Those items are almost never donated and are frequently needed. This past year there were students who needed headphones for benchmark testing. There were not enough to supply all the classes who needed them, so I provided headphones that had been donated to me. I also went out and purchased more headphones so all students could have what they needed to test successfully. I also had a student that struggled with fine motor skills and had difficulty using the mouse on the laptop. I purchased an external mouse for him to use, which greatly improved his mobility while completing school work. While I had the privilege of working alongside counselors who supported me with school supplies, I also did the same for them. We worked together to make sure all the students had what they needed in that aspect. There will be a deficit without the CIS program.
Fifth, and what prompted me to contact you in the first place, is where the article states that the campus angel tree "is not a CIS program but has come under the supervision of Kurtis Quillin in the nearly three years he has been with CCISD." I am not sure what his role in the angel tree was at the administration building, but the CIS at each campus was in charge of the angel tree. I personally would start informing parents in October and created an online form where they could list their students' wants and needs. This included clothing and hygiene items as well. We would all receive an email from Shelley Brown asking if we had students who needed sponsorship and we would send her our lists. She would inform us when items were ready for pick-up and we would get them to disseminate them to the families. Mr. Quillen was never part of our communications. House Creek does an auction every year and the money from that is used to purchase gifts for students who were added to the list late or were not sponsored. The past two years the counselor, Mrs. Valdez, helped me do the shopping for those students. This year I helped around 70 students. Over the years I have stayed late to pass out gifts, worked weekends and even worked over Christmas break to make sure gifts were passed out, and communicated endless hours with families, staff, and business to make sure every child, including siblings not at my campus, received Christmas presents. I say, with conviction, that this was my (our) program and not Mr. Quillen's.
Finally, I would like to address the "redundancies" both Dr. Hawkins and Mr. Quillen elude to. CIS staff are instructed to not provide any services that are already being provided for by the district, specifically to avoid redundancies in services. Mr. Quillen brought up free lunch and breakfast for students in one of his online comments. CIS does not provide this service. However, many campuses had a weekend backpack program to help families who struggled with food insecurity. We worked with community agencies to provide Thanksgiving baskets to families who could not afford the meal. House Creek, Fairview, and Halstead (until the past two years) were sponsored by Grace United Methodist Church. The church provided everything needed for a family to make a whole meal. Large families were able to receive two baskets. This often meant food for much longer than one holiday. When possible we would also provide food for Christmas break. This year I tried multiple times to set up a mobile food pantry with a local church to fill gaps during the holiday weeks. However, Monica Hall at the district office would not return my inquiries to set up such events. CIS also had an emergency food pantry at our central office in Killeen. If we learned about families without food, we could gather enough items for at least one week of meals. From there we would link them with external resources. Many times I helped families apply for SNAP benefits. This was especially true of the unaccompanied minors I worked with while at Crossroads High School. These services are not provided by any district personnel. One parent also recently brought up the issue of confidentiality. He/she is concerned now that CIS is gone that confidentiality will be non-existent and has stated they will not be asking for help from school staff. This means that families and students will not be receiving necessary services throughout the year.
Mr. Quillen also brought up attendance. While assisting with attendance has always been part of CIS, Dr. Hawkins made it a priority this year. He requested all site coordinators attend an admin meeting last July. We were not on contract and were not paid to attend the meeting. There, he mandated we work with campus and district staff to mitigate absences. I already had a positive relationship with our assigned truancy officer, Autumn Becka, and worked with her frequently. I even notified her about students I had concerns for. I attended all scheduled ARC meetings. I spoke with parents about why their children were late or absent. But this priority came from the district, not CIS.
There are several aspects of CIS that will be completely lost with the end of our contract, as well. Every CIS provided small groups to students. These groups varied, but I used my time with students to work on fine motor skills (we have fifth graders who do not know how to use scissors), conflict and anger management, team work, communication skills, and mindfulness. My students learned how to communicate effectively with each other and the adults in their lives. They learned how to see things from other perspectives. We worked on critical thinking, self-regulation, and even managing grief. These are things the school staff simply do not have time to accomplish.
I also attended appointments with parents and students to ensure they were receiving accurate services from their providers. I brokered free and low cost physical and mental health services. One student received free dental care that would have cost thousands of dollars. I even got a local business to offer free gymnastics classes to a student whose family could not afford it. I have paid utility bills for families to keep their services from being cut off. I have received donated furniture and appliances that I picked up and delivered. I have partnered with other CIS staff to provide additional family engagement nights that focused more on family togetherness than academic rigor. At Crossroads I facilitated a mommy-and-me group to help new and expecting moms navigate the trials of parenthood. There are so many aspects of this position that cannot be covered as a part-time role addition.
I'm sure there are many more things that I could say, and I am definitely available to answer any questions or fill in any gaps. I was disappointed to see the end of our contract, but I also had a feeling this was going to happen with all the additional cuts happening around the district. I am mostly upset about the loss of services for my students and about how little regard the district has given us. To steal our efforts and hard work is disrespectful. But most of all, I do not like our district leaders falsifying information. As leaders, they should garner trust and respect. However, the statements from Dr. Hawkins and Mr. Quillen have dissolved both. This is not the behavior I want to see from the men leading my childrens' education and I believe this will be their last year in this school district. I hope that with this event, they can move forward with more transparency and honesty. Our children deserve better.
Cassandra Ray, MSW
Dear Mr. Morris,
My name is Kaitlynd Vickers, and I was the Communities in Schools (CIS) site coordinator at Martin Walker Elementary for the past five years. I have provided countless resources and services to students and families over the years. With witnessing the need firsthand, it is disheartening to not have the CIS contract renewed for the 2026-2027 school year.
After reading the article with Dr. Hawkins and Kurtis Quillin, there are a few things I would like to address that were stated in regard to how CIS was a “duplicate” service.
Let’s start with stuff the bus. Yes, the annual school supply drive is hosted by the district and then evenly distributed to each campus, which I was in charge of getting the supplies to my campus and then passing them out as needed. However, every year the amount of supplies donated has greatly decreased. The main item that is needed on campus but is not donated enough is headphones, in which I would use my campus budget provided by CIS to buy headphones for students in need. Angel Tree was brought up and according to the article, it was under the supervision of Kurtis Quillin. I was not aware that he had anything to do with this program. I have not had any contact with him and in the five years I worked in the district, it was Shelley Brown who would email all the CIS site coordinators to see if we had students still in need of a sponsor.
The site coordinators would send her the list and she would find sponsors for them. Then CIS would have to get the gifts and distribute them to the families. Mr. Quillin mentioned in a comment on Facebook that “The process will remain consistent. A campus representative will start the process and then send it up to my office when they’ve exhausted options.” I’m not sure if he knew that the campus representative he mentioned was actually the CIS site coordinator on that campus. Myself and other CIS staff have spent countless hours each year working on Angel Tree to ensure every student had a Christmas that year. Most of us would start around Halloween time contacting families in need to build the list for the campus. I would have all my students sponsored before the Thanksgiving break so their sponsors could shop during Black Friday.
It’s not fair to us who have spent so much time, money, energy, and effort to have someone at the admin level try to take credit for it. Another comment that was mentioned in the article by Dr. Hawkins is that there is still federally budgeted money for clothing and I just have one question.. “Where?”. To my knowledge, the only money that is budgeted to a campus for clothing goes to the counselor to spend on students who are considered homeless under the MVP Act.
The nurses are not allowed to keep clothing in their office. This is where CIS steps in and uses their budget provided by CIS to buy clothes, socks, underwear, and shoes for students in case of accidents, milk or food spilled on their clothes, or bloody noses and they don’t have a change of clothes.
The only clothing item I have ever received from admin was a box of jackets. And while those are used and appreciated, it doesn’t take the place for when a student needs an entire outfit change. I don’t know of any other staff member on campus that had any of those items available for students. Once again, it was under the responsibility of CIS.
Let’s bring up Thanksgiving turkey baskets. Every year the number of families in need of a Thanksgiving meal has increased. CIS was in charge of ensuring those families had a turkey basket which the baskets I provided had a turkey, stuffing, cookies to make for dessert, and a $10 gift card to H-E-B to buy whatever else they needed. I had a community sponsor donate these turkey baskets to my campus each year. (Big shout out and thank you to St. Martin’s Episcopal Church). Now, Shelley Brown did reach out to the CIS site coordinators each year to offer turkeys from a community sponsor, but CIS was in charge of getting them from her and distributing them to the families.
A few more services I provided to my families were weekend food bags, buying hygiene products, supplying laundry detergent, buying glasses for students in need since the VSP eyes of hope voucher hasn’t been renewed in three years, and even paying for a utility bill so their electricity or water service wouldn’t be disconnected.
None of these services are duplicated by the district nor will they be. These were all provided by my campus budget from CIS and when my budget was getting low, I would buy food items with my own money or asking for donations from my campus to ensure the students were fed on the weekends / Spring and Christmas Break.
It’s upsetting that Dr. Hawkins stated the PCOC at the elementary schools do a “very similar job as CIS does”. I can assure you that the PCOC does nothing close to what CIS does. Everything mentioned above has solely been relied upon the CIS site coordinator. The PCOC communicates with parents about volunteer opportunities on campus, making posts on Facebook for the campus, taking pictures of school and class events, and other duties assigned.
These two positions are completely different from one another and should not be compared. Thank you for taking the time to read about what CIS actually did for the district.
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