Life after school: Family and civic team established

  • By Sharon Haught
  • March 15, 2010
  • 547
                        
Preparing students for life beyond the classroom is at the core of our educational system. But it takes more than dedicated school teachers and administrators to prepare students to meet the challenges of the real world. It takes the entire community working together to make students successful. That’s the concept behind the family and civic engagement team. As part of Gov. Ted Strickland’s educational reform package, which was passed as part of the state’s biennial budget in the form of House Bill 1 that was signed into law last summer, school districts across the state are now required to form a family and civic engagement team. The goal of the team is “to develop a process to put a support structure in place for students so that students can experience educational success,” said Mark Stefanik, Wooster City Schools director of alternative programs, when he spoke to members of the board of education at their February meeting. The team, which is comprised of parents, community representatives, health and human service representatives and business representatives, works together to ensure all children have the support needed to graduate from high school, prepare for additional educational experiences, the workforce and a healthy lifestyle. “The teams are made up of some school administrators but mostly community agency personnel and parents who look at the support networks that we have in place already, to review these and add any support networks we need in the school system,” said Stefanik. Unlike many school districts in the state, Wooster and the greater Wayne County community already have a strong system in place in the form of the Wayne County Family and Children First Council. Through the Family and Children First Council, “there is a process in place called service coordination…which brings agency personnel, school personnel and community personnel together that are working with a student or his or her family to talk about what steps each partner can take in helping to support the student or family so that the student can concentrate on being successful,” noted Stefanik. “It’s a little bit strange for us to some extent to have this conversation because in Wayne County our Family and Children First Council is phenomenal,” said Superintendent Michael Tefs. According to Tefs, the reason the requirement for a family and civic engagement team was put in place on a state level was “to ensure that children have the support that they need to graduate from high school and go on to lifelong experiences. That does not necessarily happen across the state of Ohio.” “I applaud House Bill 1 for what it’s attempting to do, but fortunately in Wayne County our Family and Children First Council, under the direction of Cameron Maneese, is exemplar, in my opinion, in the state of Ohio,” said Tefs. He noted that eventually the team would likely be migrated into the district’s existing business advisory council with Stefanik as chair.


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