MAHONING COUNTY Austintown plans program for after school

The program is slated to serve about 100 pupils next year.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- School officials have been awarded a $1.5 million state grant to pay for an after-school program for pupils who are academically or economically disadvantaged.
The Learning Center program, which will serve elementary- and middle-school pupils, is scheduled to start Sept. 10 at Davis Elementary School and Frank Ohl and Austintown middle schools, said Paige Wilcox, the program's project director. Wilcox also works as a case manager for the district's alternative school.
Pupils in the daily 31/2-hour learning center program will receive academic help and a meal and will participate in physical activities, she said. The program also will offer a six-week, all-day summer session for elementary school pupils next summer, Wilcox said.
"I see it being an all-around benefit academically, socially and emotionally," for the pupils, she said.
Wilcox said school officials learned they had been awarded the grant by the Ohio Department of Education earlier this month. The five-year grant will provide officials with $300,000 annually to pay for program expenses, which will include three staff members at each school: a site coordinator, a teacher and a mentor. The site coordinator and mentor also will be Austintown teachers.
Working parents
The program is designed in part to help pupils who don't receive needed emotional or academic guidance after school because their parents are working, Wilcox said. She said that by providing that guidance, the program can help pupils pass state proficiency tests while also encouraging them to stay out of trouble both in and out of school.
The program is expected to serve about 100 pupils next year, she said.
"We have a lot of kids with needs, and we want to improve their situation," said Jan Gorsuch, a nurse practitioner and the program director for the district's in-school-based health center. Gorsuch and Wilcox worked together to apply for the state grant.
Gorsuch also noted that The Learning Center can help the district improve its scores on the state proficiency tests.
"It's right on the money as far as the type of things we need to provide to our students and our community," Superintendent Stan Watson said.
Skeptical about grant
Watson noted that when he first spoke with school officials about The Learning Center proposal, he was skeptical that the district would be awarded such a large grant.
"I thought they had lofty expectations. You didn't expect that they would hit the home run, but they did," he said.
Watson also stressed that the grant must be used for The Learning Center, and that it can't be spent on district operations. School officials have predicted that the district will have a $1.6 million deficit at the end of next school year, and Watson has recommended that the school board seek voter approval of a levy in November.
hill@vindy.com