United Way of Erie County's community schools on Monday rolled out the red carpet to welcome back students at Erie's Public Schools.

Erie News Now stopped by McKinley Elementary School, which is one of the six community schools encouraging students to have a successful school year.

They returned to school with cheers, smiles and words of encouragement to help boost self-esteem.

"We are so excited to have everybody back at school," said Jackie Bull, . "We miss them when they're gone. We have lots of new programing and opportunities for our kids, so we're excited to get them back in the classroom and learning once again."

It's all done in collaboration with the community school directors, school staff and administration and each school's community partners, according to the United Way.