Save Cooper’s Poynt

r’s Poynt community. This community consists of dedicated teachers and staff, supportive families, amazing students, and strong community connections. Over the last few years, the Cooper’s Poynt family has grown to include a partnership with the Philadelphia 76ers, Rutgers University, Rowan University, BookMates, Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that creates parks and protects land for people and Playworks, a national nonprofit that helps kids to stay active and build valuable life skills. Our partnership with the Philadelphia 76ers has brought Ben Simmons to visit our students, new basketball courts outside, an upgraded gym, new uniforms for every sports team, playground upgrades, and several televised pep rallies. Our Playworks partnership through the Sixers Youth Foundation has brought valuable social-emotional learning experiences to our students, first through structured recess activities when we were in person and now during our virtual setting. Our partnership with Trust for Public land will bring outdoor classrooms and rain gardens to our students. Rowan and Rutgers Universities offer both after school programming and weekend programming to assist our students throughout their educational careers, social-emotional growth and college pursuits. Both programs have continued to support our students through our virtual learning. BookMates is an interfaith literacy program that has brought even more reading into our building. Each week volunteers come in for one-to-one reading sessions with students. Cooper’s Poynt is also home to the Archway Program, providing support to students within their community instead of traveling outside the district. Through our School Based Youth Services program (SBYS), our students have constant access to a range of supports, not only through our SBYS team in the building but their numerous partnerships throughout the area. SBYS is a support not only to our students but also to our families as they navigate challenging times. Closing Cooper’s Poynt would remove all of these valuable resources from our students and the families of North Camden. Closing Cooper’s Poynt would mean that every student would need to be bussed to another district school, creating an unnecessary hardship on families. Closing Cooper’s Poynt would completely disrupt the educational lives of over 400 students. As the only public school in North Camden, Cooper’s Poynt should remain open to service the community and its students.