Like many of their LINC workmates picking up pickleball paddles on this weekday morning, Alicia Byers and Sherry Shumate-Jones were taking their first swings at the game. But they had children on their minds — the students back at their Caring Communities sites who, like them, would soon be encouraged to play the court game in their LINC after-school programs.

“LINC wants our students using their mind in productive ways. This helps them improve in their school studies, too.”

People want to be meaningfully involved in the success of their neighborhood and in the health of children and adults. Site councils, which are under way or coming to all of LINC’s Caring Communities programs, bring together the people to help make that happen.

The school board and district administration — with the support as well of public charter schools in Kansas City — believe the time is now for Kansas City schools to seek KCPS’s first bond issue since 1967. Election Day is April 8.

The donors’ support sends a wonderful message to the students and the community, said Whittier Principal Phillena Layne. See the “confidence boost” that the students get “knowing that the community is behind them.