Long Beach : District OKs School-Based Service Program for Needy

A community group has won school district support for its plan to provide after-school activities, classes and social services for disadvantaged children and their families.

The nonprofit Webster School Community Services Program will be privately funded but will operate out of Webster Elementary School in west Long Beach.

The Long Beach Unified school board approved the program at its Monday meeting. As a result, organizers can begin to solicit support, organizer Kathy Berry said. Negotiations for a $60,000 corporate donation are under way, she said.

Organizers said the idea for such a school-based service in west Long Beach grew out of the civil unrest that followed the Rodney King beating trial. Rioters burned parts of west Long Beach during the disturbance, adding to the burden of residents long plagued by poverty and gangs.

“Right after the riots, I found a bunch of business and professional people in Long Beach who are ‘doers,’ ” said Charles E. Greenberg, a Long Beach attorney who helped initiate the project. “We held each other’s hands and said, ‘What can we do?’ ”

Greenberg said he would like the center to include activities for latchkey children, study halls for students, classes for parents, counseling services and a medical clinic.

“Schools should be the focal point of the community, not enclosed with barbed wire after six hours of classes,” said Greenberg, who hopes to keep the campus open well after dark.