United Way of Erie Co. celebrates new community school milestone

On a normal day, the United Way of Erie County looks for ways to improve local public schools.

But on Wednesday the United Way came to the Bayfront Convention Center to celebrate some of their accomplishments, including the recent addition of Erie High School as their 17th community school.

"The students have had a continuum of community school supports from K to 8th grade, and when they get to 9th grade, they didn't have those supports before, so now, we're able to expand that to make sure they have those really important supports they need to ensure they're ready to learn," said Brian Polito, superintendent for Erie's Public Schools.

Polito said the United Way will analyze the needs of Erie High School students to give them the proper educational support they need.

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Seats were filled with hundreds of people coming to United Way's assembly this year, and the United Way president said this year's event is much different than prior years, as they are celebrating a special achievement.

"This was a big celebration of the launch of Erie High as our 17th community school," said Laurie Root, president of the United Way of Erie County. "There's nothing like it from this year to past years. We totally blew it up. We wanted to do something different. We wanted to do something fun and energetic and engaging."

Root said four United Way directors have already been located to Erie High and are working on enrichment programs and other ways to support the students.

The assembly also brought in the president of the Institute for Educational Leadership as the keynote speaker, who highlighted the efficiency of Erie's educational system.

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"Erie is unique because they have a K-12 model, so there's a real continuum of care. When you think about hospitals for example, they understand they are social determinants of health. Well, they are really social determinants of education too, and when you have really intentional partners with communities like you see in Erie, magical things can happen," said Eddie Koen, president of the Institute for Educational Leadership.

After the assembly, attendees were invited to a reception to enjoy food, wine and conversation.

Also at Wednesday's assembly, Tim and Lisa Necastro received the Tocqueville Award for their philanthropic leadership in the Erie community.