Chester City and Chester-Upland School District sign Delaware County Community College agreement

Mayor Wendell Butler and school district president Wanda Mann

Chester, PA –With the grand opening of table games at Harrah’s Chester this past summer, city officials are now taking the necessary steps to ensure Chester residents who are interested in pursuing higher education can achieve their dream of obtaining a college degree. 

Today Mayor Wendell N. Butler, Jr. and Wanda Mann, President of the Chester-Upland School District, officially signed the memorandum of understanding that designates 1 percent of table gaming revenue from Harrah’s to allow the Chester-Upland School District to become a sponsoring district of the Delaware County Community College for the first time ever.

“This deal will help immensely those Chester residents who want to pursue a post-high school education,” said Butler. “For this reason, I wanted to have this agreement on the fast track so that as many residents as possible can take advantage of the opportunity.”

For many families and individuals, the cost of post secondary education is just too high. To address this problem, Mayor Butler worked closely with Senate Majority Leader Dominic F. Pileggi and the school district to ensure table games legislation provided funding to lower the cost of post high school education for Chester Upland residents. 

 “Becoming a sponsoring district has been a long time goal but we simply couldn’t afford the nearly $4 million capital buy-in and the approximately $250,000 annual sponsorship fee,” said Wanda Mann, CUSD Board President. “Now because of this deal with the city, not only will our students benefit, but also all Chester Upland residents.”

Ultimately cutting the cost for a Chester Upland resident to attend Community College by 50 percent, fees will drop to just $97 per credit hour versus $194 for residents of non-sponsoring districts beginning in January 2011. This major cost reduction will result in many more City residents being able to take advantage of the programs and facilities available through Delaware County Community College and bring them closer to achieving their dream of obtaining a college education.

p.s. An awesome accomplishment! It just strikes me as strange that no one from Harrah's is represented in the photo. Is Harrah's doing this voluntarily as a community service, or is the legislation forcing their hand.? I'm just curious.