CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A community-based program in 31 county school systems in West Virginia has a new website.
First Lady Cathy Justice and state educational leaders launched www.ciswv.org, a new website to support Communities In Schools (CIS) West Virginia. CIS is a non-profit organization that works within public schools to help at-risk children.
“We hope that all of the CIS staff throughout the state will find the website helpful and use and make it valuable to what you are doing,” Justice said.
CIS is in at 171 schools in West Virginia with 167 site coordinators. According to the state Department of Education site, around 70,000 students are impacted by CIS in West Virginia.
Serena Nichols from the Office of First Lady Justice detailed parts of the website including Berkeley County being the first county featured on the main page. Nichols said Berkeley was one of the three pilot counties for CIS in the state. The site will feature other counties and go in alphabetical order.
“We have a great interactive map,” Nichols explained another feature. “You can click on the different counties to see what schools have the programs in them and information on the program site coordinators.”
Other tabs on the main page of the site include About Us, Our Stories, Advisory Council, and Contact Us, along with a donate button and search bar.
In attendance for the unveiling of the website included West Virginia Superintendent of Schools David L. Roach; Deputy Superintendent Michele Blatt; Communities In Schools (CIS) Advisory Council Chair and WV Board of Education Member Debra Sullivan; Cynthia Sorsaia and Tracy Komorowski from the WV Department of Education; CIS Regional Specialists Erin Boyd, Zachary Hughart, Ginny Ratliff and Carla Snell; Vicki Shannon and Serena Nichols from the Office of First Lady Justice.
Gov. Jim Justice said of the program, “I’ve never seen a program that touches more people in a more positive way than Communities in Schools.”