Charter school makes first hire

The York Academy Regional Charter School, a new charter school in York that will bring city and suburban students together starting in September 2011, hired its first staff person. Kathleen Eshbach was approved Dec. 13 as the school's first chief academic officer. She is assistant principal at Spring Grove Elementary School in Spring Grove School District. She will assume her new position Feb. 1. A York Daily Record story this week provided more details.

The hiring marked another significant milestone for the school, which emerged from YorkCounts' Metro-York process as a way to deal with the education challenges posed by concentrated poverty in the city. The public charter school came about through the collaboration of the three chartering school districts - York City, York Suburban and Central York.

School officials are also preparing for the effort to enroll the first group of students. The school will open with three grades - three classes each for kindergarten, first and second - with a total of around 225 students. To fill those slots, the school will soon begin the process of distributing brochures to families in the three chartering districts. Brochures and applications will also be mailed to families that had expressed an interest in the school earlier this year. Parents that want to enroll their kids in the school will be able to do so early in 2011.

Around the same time, the school will begin advertising for the first teaching positions. About 50 staff members will eventually be employed by the school, which is located in the heart of the Northwest Triangle project a short walk from Central Market, the Strand-Capitol and Sovereign Bank Stadium.

Finally, the school continues to add more information to its Web site, http://www.yorkarcs.org/. Go there and get a sense of the mission and vision of the school, see the backgrounds of the people running it, or learn about the admission process. You can also download a copy of the student application.

- Dan Fink

Summarizing the summit

Eric Menzer had it right.

Sure, it was exciting to see all the successes YorkCounts volunteers had achieved in the past year - the work on Stay in School Report by the United Way, the effort on the regional charter school led by Dennis Baughman and Sue Krebs, the municipal officials who laid the groundwork for a groundbreaking examination of regional policing in York County.

And Lynn Cummings, a community organizer who helped found Neighbors Empowering Pennsauken, offered an inspiring message about the potential of every individual to make a difference.

But it was the outgoing YorkCounts board chairman and former co-chairman of the Metro-York effort who concisely made the case for our mission in the community:

“We were created to shine a light on numbers that sometimes we would rather not see. We were created to ask questions that make us a little uncomfortable. We were created to work on problems that one organization can’t solve alone."

In other words, we confront issues that nobody else wants. It's hard work. It can take years to see incremental improvements. Folks don't always agree with us. But we do it truly to improve the quality of life in York County.

Update, 3/29: I had a few requests from people who wanted to see a copy of Eric's entire speech. You can find it here.

Update 2, 3/29: I put some photos from the summit up on Facebook. Click here to go to the YorkCounts Facebook page, and then check out the Summit 2010 photo album. Penn State York filmed the summit, and White Rose Community Television will rebroadcast it starting within the next week. I will let you know when I have air times.

- Dan Fink

Metro recommendations announced. Share your thoughts here.

YorkCounts, York County's community-wide quality-of-life coalition, on Thursday presented eight forward-thinking recommendations for improving municipal prosperity and education, with the
aim of a better, stronger heart of York County. Known as the Metro-York recommendations, the ideas are the outcome of YorkCounts’ ambitious Metro-York project.

The online content depot for the recommendations is http://www.yorkcounts.org/metro. Find the ideas themselves, background, survey results, lists of participants and more at http://www.yorkcounts.org/metro. E-mail YorkCounts to get involved at yorkcounts@gmail.com. And comment on the recommendations here at the YorkCounts blog.

Metro-York recommendations to be announced Thurs., Nov. 15

YorkCounts, York County's community-wide quality-of-life coalition, is set to announce forward-thinking recommendations for improving municipal finances and education, with the aim of a better, stronger heart of York County. Known as the Metro-York recommendations, these ideas will be the outcome of YorkCounts’ ambitious Metro-York project.

YorkCounts board chair Larry Miller and Metro-York co-chairs Eric Menzer and Bill Simpson will make the presentation Thursday, Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. at the York Jewish Community Center, 2000 Hollywood Drive, York. If weather permits, the event will take place on the lawn in front of the building. If not, the venue will be the auditorium.

"One idea, for regional police, already has traction and made the front pages in September," noted Metro-York co-chair Eric Menzer. "This event will be about building momentum for all of the recommendations. What’s in it for you? Good jobs, good schools, safe neighborhoods -– the kind of prosperity that everyone in York County wants," Menzer added.

YorkCounts launched Metro-York in 2006 to address core concerns in the heart of the county, including a concentration of poverty, rising crime, tax burdens and inequities, a lack of job opportunities and challenges within our schools. Members of the community participated through three committees. A strong, credible cross-section of elected officials, municipal administrators, business and nonprofit leaders and retired Yorkers took part.

These panels met numerous times to discuss and debate key concerns and formulate proposals. The results were presented to the YorkCounts Board, which adopted the recommendations.

Visit yorkcounts.org/metro after noon Nov. 15 to read more about the Metro-York recommendations -- or, better yet, join us at 10 a.m. that day at the York JCC!