43
YCS is looking to add two more grade levels
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown Community School is looking to expand over the next two years.
Currently, 325 students attend YCS. Superintendent Rachael Smith and Principal Heidi Cope plan to maintain the 40 sixth-grade students in seventh grade and then repeat the maintenance for eighth.
“It’s about family and keeping kids together and giving kids a good choice where they can attend school,” Smith said. “We want to be able to maintain them as long as we possibly can.”
Cope agreed.
“We are into a keeping-the-whole-family – of both students and actual families – vibe,” she said. “We want to keep our kids.”
Beyond the family feeling YCS provides, Cope said the school enables students to get a different kind of education.
“We provide a productive, but memorable education,” she said.
She added that she sees a need for Mahoning Valley children to be recognized by schools such as YCS, where each staff member is interested in every individual “whole child.”
“My heart is just filled here when I walk the halls see the staff interact with the kids,” Cope said. “There’s a feeling of genuine care. We take care of one another like a family.”
For enrollment questions or information about the expansion call 330-746-2240.
Smith said the personal connection is also what is motivating the expansion.
The school distributed surveys to YCS parents and community members which revealed the interest in expansion went beyond the dream of just Cope and Smith.
The two now have a long-term goal: to expand into a high-school setting.
Until that goal is made possible, however, Smith said YCS has a counseling department to help each student identify a good path to move onto from YCS.
“The idea for them to be able to continue to move up through the YCS family for a couple more years is something attractive to us,” she said.
The seventh- and eighth-grade classes will be housed in Austintown’s old Lynn Kirk Elementary School building, 4211 Evelyn Road.
Smith did not yet have a figure on the cost for expansion, but was confident school administrators and community efforts would be able to make it happen.
“We have great community support and partners,” Smith said.