United Way launched the Community School Model with five pilot schools in Erie's Public Schools (EPS) during the 2016-17 school year. Since then, we have expanded to include three additional districts at the elementary school level: Girard, Iroquois, and Union City. In EPS, the model now spans K-12, including all of the elementary and middle schools and Erie High School. Future expansion, depending on human and financial resources, will look to expand in the three other districts, scaling up through the middle and eventually high schools.
United Way represents Erie County PA, where there are 13 separate school districts. As noted earlier, the city schools, Erie’s Public Schools (EPS) is by far the largest district and has the highest need population. The expansion into three additional school districts in the suburban and rural areas was based on need as well as interest by the district leadership.
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Diehl
Edison
Grover Cleveland
Harding
Jefferson
JoAnna Connell
Lincoln
McKinley
Perry
Pfeiffer-Burleigh
East
Strong Vincent
Woodrow Wilson
Erie High
Future expansion will be based on United Way’s backbone capacity, including funding. It’s important to secure the current community schools for the long-term prior to adding any additional schools. However, it is the aspiration of United Way that all public schools in need in Erie County eventually become community schools.
