Woodland Hills principal pleads for help, donations come pouring in for new equipment

PITTSBURGH — UPDATE: Principal Woods tells Channel 11 $92,000 was raised for the district to buy new equipment. He said the money will go towards buying 100 more laptops and providing free internet for students who need it.

Original story:

With schools across the state closed for the foreseeable future, one local district is trying to meet the demand for virtual learning.

The principal of Woodland Hills High School turned to social media for help getting the resources needed to teach students during the pandemic.

“As an individual, I’m worried that the closure is going to be extended. So right now, our children have not had access to new instruction materials for three weeks, next week will be four,” said Phillip Woods.

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Woods said there are not enough Chromebooks for the 1,000 high school students.

“What we are trying to do is problem solve, find out who has a device and then we’re trying to fill the voids,” Woods said.

He took to Facebook, asking alumni and other community members to donate whatever they could. It resulted in people reaching out to donate laptops and even cash to help fund the new equipment.

“To see the outpour of support, we have people donating $5, we have people donating $10,” said Woods. “The response has been tremendous. I can’t even name all the different donors or sponsors, but we’ve had hundreds and I’ve literally, said hundreds.”

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