Instead of desks, bookshelves, and stacks of paper and pencils, one Aliquippa High School classroom now stores piles of clothing, backpacks and boxes of food. It’s Malik Shegog’s new office, the recently appointed Pittsburgh Area Community Schools site coordinator at the school.
Aliquippa School District is the first district in Beaver County to join Pittsburgh Area Community Schools (PACS), an organization that sprung in the 1990s from a national initiative that works from within school buildings to wrap community services around students and their families in an effort to remove barriers to learning.
“Education is more than just showing up to school. If you go to sleep hungry every day of the week, it's hard to come to school and be prepared,” said Shegog. “So we're just trying to tackle the education side from the things that you don't see in the classroom.”
Shegog’s job is to coordinate high school programs and community resources and connect them with students — from tutoring and mentoring programs, to mental health services. He works to bring services into the building through community partnerships. Right now he’s working to make sure basic needs are readily available by creating an in-school clothing closet and food pantry filled with donations from local churches and other organizations.
Shegog is an Aliquippa alum, has served the district as a substitute teacher and his son attends the elementary school. He said these connections and his roots in the community will help him support students in this new role.
“They don't have to email some big corporation or some nonprofit that's not here. They can just come down and talk to me and we can figure out what resources we have to be able to provide that,” Shegog said.
He said relying directly on students, families, school staff and community-based organizations to tell him what they need is a central part of the community school model.
“Doing that community outreach so that the families know there's an open door and that they are welcome to come to the school and be part of all of this is essential,” said Bridget Clement, the executive director of PACS.
Aliquippa joins eight other schools and districts across Allegheny and Westmoreland counties that are working with PACS to implement the community school model. In 2023, PACS received a five-year grant of nearly $8.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education Full-Service Community Schools program to expand their work with schools, including Aliquippa. Funding covers the role of the school-based site manager and supports some expanded programming.
Clement said resources are less concentrated in Beaver and Westmoreland counties compared to more urban districts in Allegheny County.
“It's wonderful to be over here and sort of starting something new,” said Clement.
As PACS works with Shegog to build out the community school model at the high school, efforts are also getting started at Aliquippa Elementary, where another recently hired site director is focused on adding more afterschool programs.
“We're just excited about the long term future of the implementation right now because the district has been such a good partner,” said Monté Robinson, the chief program officer at PACS.
