Bossier Parish Schools is the recipient of a $1-million Department of Defense Education Activity grant to expand efforts to support students' social and emotional well-being of military-connected students and their peers.

Four schools will offer the additional programming over a five-year period -- Airline and Parkway High Schools and R.V. Kerr and Stockwell Place Elementary Schools. Bossier Schools' Military Student Coordinator Georgette Price has been named as the Project SEW-B-It (Social Emotional Well-Being Intensive Training) director.

"This will enable Bossier Parish Schools to increase support systems for student social/emotional wellness through peer support programs like Student 2 Student, target it in programming based off a universal screener, which will be provided for every student, progress monitoring and an individualized treatment," Price said. "We will be able to expand the understanding of our staff, parents and students concerning the needs of the military-connected student and their continual challenges of frequent transitions and separations."

She said the focus at the elementary level will be on building resiliency and leadership skills, as well as coping mechanisms in relation to transition and separation issues. At the high school level, the focus will be to provide additional social and emotional support services in order to decrease the negative impact of transitions and separations.

Price said for high-schoolers, changing schools can be more difficult. When you move during those high school years, you almost have to recreate yourself at the school.

"So at the school that you came from, maybe you were the quarterback, or you were the lead in the play, and you were very involved," she said. "And now you moved to a school, and it's October, and everyone sort of has their own established peer groups. So with a lot of our peer training that we're going to do at the student level, this will enhance those services to help when a transitioning student comes in, especially in the middle of the year, to make that seamless for them."

Bossier Schools Superintendent D.C. Machen is thrilled Bossier Schools have been chosen to offer this programming.

"We feel strongly every child should feel like a valuable member of our school family and the SEW-B-It program will be another resource to ensure the students entrusted in our care find balance, stability and confidence," he said. "We are most appreciative to DoDEA for choosing Bossier Schools as one of its largest grant recipients and for recognizing the positive outcomes that can be achieved by our children when we all work together toward the same goal."

 

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