The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Family Resource Center approved
The center and location were unanimously approved by district
Wickliffe Schools Superintendent Joseph Spiccia has received the green light from the school board to move forward with establishing the new family resource center.
A resolution in support of the center and its location was unanimously approved at the most recent school board meeting.
Spiccia said the funding will be used to renovate the former metal shop in the high school. That space, which is about 6,000 square feet, will be used for the center. Some of the programs offered may include workforce and economic development; educational resources; and medical and social services.
For four years, Spiccia and Director of Strategic Innovation Julie Ramos have been trying to establish a family resource center to meet the needs of the community.
“We thought ‘how do we help our students achieve academically and in some cases those
who are coming from difficult environments?’,” he said. “So, we thought about the idea of providing services to help our families in our community, as well as our students. We thought the concept and idea was something everyone could get behind. As we applied for grants and opportunities for funding, we kept getting turned down because we didn’t have data that supported the value of such a center.”
Ramos wrote a grant for the local government innovation fund and the district received $35,000 to conduct a feasibility study.
The study was conducted by the strategic planning organization called Long and Short of It and the economics department at Kent State University, he said.
The study revealed that every year about 1,500 residents would benefit from such a facility and it would have a positive economic impact on the community by creating jobs.
Following the feasibility study, they began seeking funding from the state capital budget with the help of state Sen. Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, and his office.
As a result the district was awarded a $25,000 grant for the family resource project.
While securing funding was a challenge, they still had the task of finding a location.
Spiccia said they inquired about several properties in the city, but those facilities did not meet their needs.
“So, we turned our attention to our district facilities, knowing that we were not using the metal shop nor was the metal shop involved in reconfiguration plans,” he said. “It has the adequate size, plumbing electric and so forth to meet that need.”