In a rare and heartily welcomed move, the El Cerrito City Council voted unanimously on Dec. 4 to approve a $2,500 grant to help keep our writer coaches at Portola Middle School in El Cerrito this year.
WCC began coaching at Portola in a pilot program last spring and the challenge, as always, was to find the funding to keep the program going for the crucial second year, often a pivotal point in our program’s history at a school. In the second year, the program really takes hold and establishes the foundation for a sustained presence through the years.
With school and district funds squeezed by the state’s chronic shortage of education funding, money for academic support programs is hard to come by. For WriterCoach Connection to continue at Portola, it needed supplementary funding.
The El Cerrito community, in the form of the GoPortola volunteer organization, led by Portola parent Alonn Ilan, raised $2,320 to help keep WCC at the school. El Cerrito Councilmember Rebecca Benassini, a strong education advocate, then proposed that the City Council help provide some of the remaining program funding. The City of El Cerrito doesn’t typically fund education programs directly, but emails and calls from parents, teachers, coaches, and community members, as well as GoPortola's fundraising efforts, helped convince Council members of the importance of WCC to the school, students, and community.
We are grateful for the support of the school, community, and City Council — and we're thrilled to continue working with Portola students!
Bob Menzimer