Campbell City School District expanding community resources

Campbell city schools is looking to expand their literacy and workforce hub into a model that brings education, health care, and family support together under one roof.

"This is the first time we're actually opening a school based health center specific around vision, we are also expanding to dental as well," Matthew Bowen, Campbell Schools Superintendent said.

The district has partnered with Sight For All United in the past to perform eye exams on students or provide them with glasses, but now they're looking for a more permanent agreement.

"It's in the Campbell City Schools best interest and the interest of the community and region to make this space available beyond Sight For All United's use and see if there's any doctors interested in our area that may wanna take advantage of this space and benefit from the foot traffic that we're gonna have here," Bowen said.

Juniors and seniors will have the opportunity to train alongside doctors in a STEM lab.

This is all part of an expansion of the resources the district already offers to the community.

"We're expanding our programs to give them what they need and then at the same time, giving our young kids the health care they deserve and also creating a solution for the local workforce that is really saying we need more people in these fields," Bowen said.

In addition, this new facility will house several other amenities.

"You have an early childcare center working with our educational service center," Bowen said. "We also have a care closet with the united way we have a family engagement center we also have a partnership for stem with our northeast Ohio impact academy," he said.

Bowen breaks it down a little more in this statement:

"The Campbell Health and Community Development Center (CHCDC) is a natural expansion of the work we began through the Community Literacy Workforce and Cultural Center (CLWCC). What started as a literacy and workforce hub has grown into a comprehensive model that brings education, health care, and family support together under one coordinated vision. The CHCDC builds on that foundation by housing school-based dental and vision services, a care closet to meet basic needs, a farm-to-table STEM lab with hydroponic growing stations, an early childcare center, and a dedicated family engagement center — all designed to remove barriers that prevent students from learning.

This is not simply a new building. It is an integrated approach to serving the whole child and the whole family. Students can receive dental and vision care on site, access nutritious food grown within the building, engage in hands-on STEM learning, and connect their families to workforce development and community resources. By expanding from the CLWCC into the CHCDC, Campbell City Schools is creating a seamless pipeline of support — from early childhood through graduation — while strengthening partnerships with higher education, healthcare providers, and regional workforce leaders.

In short, the CHCDC represents the next chapter of our district's commitment to the Mahoning Valley: aligning academics, health services, and economic opportunity in one coordinated space so students and families can thrive."

Monday night, the Campbell Schools Board of Education approved the advertisement of a request for proposals for the lease and operation of a vision care provider in this new center.

Bowen said the center is slated to open on or even before August 1st.