While the Ligonier Valley School District Foundation's main goal is to provide financial support for academics, arts and athletics in the district, the nonprofit group also recognizes that even the most basic needs of some students are not being met.
The foundation is currently seeking donations for its Kidz Kare Fund, a fund created to assist students who are indigent, living in less than adequate situations or have basic needs that are not being met, such as a lack of winter clothing, dental care costs and medical co-pays.
“The needs will never go away,” said foundation board member Irma Hutchinson. “That is the reality. We need an avenue to help these kids, an immediate relief fund.”
Hutchinson said the idea for the fund started developing a few years ago when she and other foundation members were looking into a variety of needs in the district and ways to raise funds to provide for them.
She said the needs “really came to the surface” when a surge in the number of homeless students in the district occurred in the 2011-2012 school year.
“People were stopping me in the grocery store asking how they could help,” Hutchinson said.
According to Superintendent Dr. Chris Oldham, the number of homeless students in the district totaled 26 at that time. Currently, there are 10 homeless students at LVSD, she said. Additionally, 38 percent of students in the district are economically disadvantaged, based on their free-reduced lunch eligibility, according to Oldham. Specifically, 55 percent of Laurel Valley Elementary, 33 percent of R.K. Mellon Elementary, 38 percent of Ligonier Middle and 34 percent of Ligonier High Schools are economically disadvantaged, she said.
Oldham said the needs that students and families in the district experience at times are not that which school districts typically meet. Hutchinson said recent examples include an elementary student who suffered from unbearable pain due to dental cavities and a mother with multiple children who were placed in an unfurnished rental home with few belongings and had no means of transportation.
While the district is fortunate to have Home & School Visitor Tamra Springer to help students and families look into assistance resources in Westmoreland County, those resources do not always stretch far enough in some cases, Hutchinson said.
“Unfortunately even through the resources (Springer) has been able to provide through the years, they do not cover all the immediate needs of these students and their families,” Hutchinson said.
R.K. Mellon and Laurel Valley Elementary School Principal Ed Moran said there is a lack of social services available in rural communities like Ligonier Valley.
“If we don't have things like (the Kidz Kare Fund), these people don't have any other options, nor are they savvy enough in some instances to navigate the complex system that is required to get these kinds of services,” he said.
Springer said in some cases, families are just slightly over the income level eligible for such services.
“She (Springer) really needs a pool to go to so that when we see what the needs are, we are able to meet them right away,” Oldham said.
For the Kidz Kare Fund, cases will be handled by administration and Springer, and then the requests will be submitted to the foundation.
In addition to dental care, medical co-pays and winter clothing, the Kidz Kare Fund may also allocate monies for co-pays for shoes and boots through the Happy Feet Program, money for the laundromat, vision care and transportation, according to Hutchinson. She also said the fund may aid totally indigent families that have experienced a parent leaving and resources have not kicked in to provide food, heat or clothing for the family; or students with incarcerated parents who are living with relatives unable to fund basic needs.
The foundation also hopes to team up with Moran and the Ligonier Valley YMCA to possibly form after-school care centers throughout the district in the future.
“When kids aren't engaged and don't belong to something, that's when they get into trouble,” Moran said.
Moran said the centers will be spread out through the district so that students can stay in the comfort of their own neighborhood. Students will be provided with “high energy, high engaging” activities, as well as homework help and a snack, Moran said.
“It will be one additional safe place kids can go to,” he said.
To jump-start its funds, the LVSD Foundation recently sent letters to local churches requesting they budget an annual contribution to the Kidz Kare Fund.
The foundation encourages anyone interested in donating to send checks to the foundation at 120 E. Main Street, Ligonier.
Nicole Chynoweth is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-850-2862 or nchynoweth@tribweb.com.
