Monday, September 23, 2013

Mental Health America Funding

As the new school year gets under way, three public school districts including Spring Branch ISD are getting help from a local group to address the behavioral health – mental health and substance abuse – needs of students through $75,000 in grant funding.

Mental Health America of Greater Houston (MHA), one of the region’s oldest mental health education and advocacy organizations, has awarded $10,000 to SBISD to train personnel to develop and implement written transition service plans for secondary students returning from alternative education programs and juvenile justice placements. The student plans will include recommendations for educational placements and referrals for behavioral health treatment, as needed.

“Mental illness and addictive disorders affect one in five children, so we feel it is extremely important for us to help school districts effectively meet the needs of these students,” Susan Fordice, MHA’s president and CEO.

“We anticipate seeing marked improvements in students’ academic and behavioral outcomes as a result of the projects being implemented in each district. We will use what we learn in these efforts to help other school districts do the same.”

School district grants were awarded as part of MHA’s School Behavioral Health Initiative, which brought together school district staffs, behavioral health providers, child-serving and education-related agencies, and parents to develop and then implement recommendations to improve the prevention, identification and treatment of behavioral health issues among students. Last spring, the group issued 37 recommendations to the Texas Legislature and other elected bodies and area groups.

In addition to SBISD, other funding recipients include the following school districts:

Channelview ISD- $25,000 award to hire a Harris County Community Youth Services worker to provide needed navigation and other support services to at-risk elementary school students and their families.

Goose Creek Consolidated ISD- $40,000 award to cover personnel costs for 150 staff members to receive training in the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

MHA was founded in 1954 by Miss Ima Hogg to enhance the mental health of all Houstonians and to improve the lives of those with mental illnesses. To learn more, please visit MHA’s site: www.mhahouston.org

FFA National Chapter Award

The Spring Branch FFA chapter was recently recognized by the National FFA Organization in its 2013 National Chapter Award Program.

 The chapter award program honors FFA chapters across the nation that successfully complete an annual set of required activities which encourage FFA members to grow as individuals, work as a team, and serve others in their communities. Judging was held earlier this summer. The Spring Branch FFA chapter will be formally recognized during the 2013 National FFA Convention & Expo, which will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in Louisville, Ky.

 The National FFA Organization has more than 557,000 active middle and high school members in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. About 7,500 local FFA chapters were in operation at last count.

TEPSA Principal Appointment

Valley Oaks Elementary Principal Gary Henry was named chair of the membership, marketing and PR committee for the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA) earlier this year. Officers from 20 TEPSA districts in Texas were installed at the association’s July Leadership Conference.

Principal Henry has been active on TEPSA’s Standing Committees for several years. Now in his 12th year at Valley Oaks Elementary, Principal Henry recently earned a business certificate through the Rice University REEP Program.

TEPSA, which has operated since 1917, has more than 5,800 members who direct the activities of more than 2.5 million children enrolled in prekindergarten through eighth grade. For details, please visit the group’s website at www.tepsa.org.

Keeping Kids in School

Today in Texas, nearly six in 10 students are suspended or expelled at least once between grades seven and 12. Many believe that those numbers are too high.

Earlier this week, Spring Branch ISD joined with United Way of Greater Houston and an Alabama judge to begin piloting a tested school disciplinary program with a proven record of reducing the number of student classroom removals for behaviors that are not criminal.

SBISD’s plan to direct a program patterned after the Clayton County, Ala., System of Care model created by Judge Stephen C. Teske was announced Sept. 16 during the “Keeping Kids in School” community event sponsored by United Way. Judge Teske was the keynote speaker there.

“We hope that all of us working together can pull together a similar system in Spring Branch,” said SBISD Superintendent of Schools Duncan F. Klussmann, Ed.D. SBISD is committed through its key T-2-4 goal to doubling its graduates who earn either a technical, two-year or four-year college degree.

The United Way meeting included a call to action from three of Houston’s highest regarded leaders, all retired. They are Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Fiorenza with the Galveston-Houston Roman Catholic Diocese, Rabbi Emeritus Samuel E. Karff of Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel, and Rev. William A. Lawson of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, also emeritus.

Their call for a new conversation involving school discipline is supported by the Greater Houston Partnership, a coalition of key corporate leaders from across the region. Earlier, the partnership asked the three faith leaders to work with United Way on the school-related topic.

More than 150 people, including SBISD leadership and administrators, principals and students, attended the special Sept. 16 meeting held at United Way offices on Waugh Drive. Other area leaders represented were United Way President & CEO Anna Babin, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Texas Sen. John Whitmire, and several local Justices of the Peace.

At issue are the discipline practices involving non-criminal student offenses. The United Way reports that more than 218,000 students across the Houston area were removed from the classroom during 2011-2012 for disciplinary problems, but only 3 percent of such offenses warranted mandatory suspension.

Judge Teske’s event address was titled “When Did Making Adults Mad Become a Crime?” Critics of current in-school and out-of-school suspension policies contend that present practices involving student discipline contribute to what is referred to as the “School-to-Prison Pipeline.”

 Judge Teske notes that students who are suspended or appear in juvenile court are more likely to drop out of school, which increases the risks for later adult criminal behavior and associated social and economic costs.

Clayton County’s System of Care model includes a tiered discipline system with support services, such as “in school conflict” workshops, to keep students out of suspension centers, or courtrooms.

 The graduation rate in Clayton County increased 24 percent between 2002 and 2009. Since then, this model or a similar one has been replicated in several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New Orleans and Baltimore.

Judge Teske was impressed with the Houston gathering. Later in the day, SBISD principals and other district employees asked questions and shared their personal insights with the judge during a beginning dialogue on discipline topics.

“What you are doing by being here today is making a statement about who you are, and what you believe is really important. Houston and Harris County, Texas, are big stakeholders on the global scene. If you can’t produce quality graduates, you can’t compete globally,” Judge Teske said.

 In SBISD, students sometimes fall through the cracks, Superintendent Klussmann said. For example, as part of a yearly district program called Operation Graduation, Dr. Klussmann met one teenager who was working nights to pay an apartment rent and going to school during the day.

The car she was using broke down. She was ticketed for truancy. Only then did teachers realize that her parents had returned to Mexico. Their daughter stayed behind in the family apartment, determined to graduate from high school and working to pay rent.

“We got that student through graduation, and I know that she will be successful. She’s far more resilient than me,” Dr. Klussmann said. Adults need to ask more questions when teenagers enter the disciplinary system, he said.

Academy of Choice (AOC) junior, Angel Miranda enjoyed his attendance at the United Way forum.

"I can honestly say that the program was very informative and a great experience. Getting to hear from Judge Teske and getting to meet with Sheriff Garcia was just an amazing opportunity. In the program, I learned a variety of new things like stats on how suspension caused dropout rates to increase. The whole thing was a great experience and I am honored to have been part of it," he said.

Miranda attended the program with a handful of other Academy of Choice students and his teacher, Anita Wadhwa, who felt it was important that her students be present.

"We here at AOC are piloting a new model of discipline called restorative justice. Students in the Leadership Class are being trained in this philosophy, which  provides an alternative to suspension, and are learning about hot to facilitate alternative solutions when conflicts arise.Since Dr. Klussman is leading an initiative to change punitive discipline policies, it was only fitting these students attend to represent Spring Branch, Wadhwa said.

Faith leaders framed the risks involved as social, economic and spiritual. A “deep split” in civic society will occur if the current pattern of youth failure continues to occur, Rabbi Karff said.

 Archbishop Fiorenza called Judge Teske’s remarks inspiring. “You impressed me with how deeply you love young people, especially young people that are in need with their family, schools or courts,” he said. The Rev. Bill Lawson called United Way’s gathering “the basis of a social revolution” in thinking about discipline.

 State Sen. Whitmire, D-Houston, shared the podium with the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church pastor. He said that the severe reaction to bad student behavior ranks as a national problem. The longtime legislator chairs the Texas Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee.

Sharing a Love of Reading & Learning: A Student Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Program



What a way to start the week!  Students from Terrace and Cedar Brook Elementary Schools joined cheerleaders from Spring Woods High School, Aldine ISD and Houston ISD, to kick-off this year's Learning Together Program.

The program, sponsored by United Way and part of the L2 Leadership Institute, extends learning opportunities in reading using a structured peer-to-peer tutoring model that boost achievement for both the tutee and the tutor.
The goal of Learning Together is to accelerate student achievement and motivate students to become lifelong learners. 

The program is based on a proven set of skills and strategies that build reading performance, encouraging the development reading skills, and empowering students to embrace and share their love of learning. Peer tutors learn strategies to help tutees become independent readers and thinkers. Tutors demonstrate the highest form of understanding by putting learning into practice.

Thank you to all our tutors and tutees who came out to celebrate the start of this year's program.  Special thanks to United Way for their support of this program in SBISD.