Thumbs up: To the three community organizations that banded together to fund an ambitious, nearly $1 million after-school program and support system in the cash-strapped York City School District.
The York County Community Foundation, the Women's Giving Circle and the United Way of York County have donated more than $800,000 to fund five Communities In Schools coordinators for three years.
They "will work directly with school administrators to provide students access to resources such as tutoring, family counseling, health services, college visits" and more, according to a news release from the community foundation.
Assistant Superintendent Tamara Willis said the district would like to have a coordinator in each of its eight schools but will start with coordinators at William Penn Senior High School and Jackson K-8. The coordinators will be full-time workers employed by Communities In Schools, she said.
At least one of the coordinators would also be tapped to staff a new after-school program the district has dubbed Second Shift.
That program, Willis said, is designed to do two things: offer teenagers activities in a safe environment between 3 and 9 p.m. and serve as an intervention program for teens picked up by police officers for "nuisance" crimes.