BLANCHESTER — Classes started Tuesday at the Blanchester Local School District, and a new school year brings new initiatives and resources to support parents and students.
Through funds acquired through the Stronger Connections Grant, the district has employed a prevention educator to help staff and students with social emotional needs. The move seeks to support school counselors and students, as a recent study conducted by The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Services Providers found that in 3,610 Ohio schools, such services had increased by 223% since 2017.
Before classes started, elementary and high school students completed Handle With Care training on a professional development day. The program is aimed at ensuring children exposed to adverse events receive appropriate interventions and build resilience through positive relationships with first responders and teachers.
“This is a behavior management system,” said Blanchester Schools Superintendent Randy Dunlap in an email to the News Journal. “That assists staff in the development of their skills for addressing a crisis in the building through appropriate interventions with students.”
Furthering the aim to provide care for students, a Healthsource Ohio clinic is now located near the entrance to the middle school.
“The hope,” said Dunlap is to, “help reduce student absenteeism by having medical professionals onsite, able to provide immediate care and return students to their buildings if appropriate.”
Parents are encouraged to complete the release form, sent home to parents and guardians, so students can take advantage of the clinic whenever services might be needed. The clinic is open to all members of the community and will provide medical care and access to school staff and students on-site.
The middle school will also be implementing a program to support the Science of Reading requirements under House Bill 33. The “REWARDS”(Reading Excellence, Word Attack, & Rate Development Strategies) program in Extended Learning Time will, “provide short term reading and writing interventions.”
Teachers at Putnam Elementary have been trained in a program called LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling), which intends to also support the Science of Reading state initiatives.
“We are seeing huge gains in grades K-4 in the last two years as the training has progressed,” said Dunlap.
Remaining staff are set to complete required Science of Reading modules, developed by the state as part of their mandate in Science of Reading. The middle school has also hired a reading recovery teacher to help struggling students reading below their grade level.
Math teachers in grades 5-12 have also taken part in a grant project this past summer called Math Rek Professional Learning. The project, facilitated by the Southern Ohio Educational Service Center (ESC), endeavors to strengthen proficiency in mathematics in grades 5-12.
“There will be ongoing support and professional development with the math teachers in order to improve the quality of instruction our students are receiving on a daily basis,” said Dunlap.
The district will be emphasizing “Teacher Clarity” and “Efficacy,” for a third year, said Dunlap to, “be clearer with (the schools) learning goals and intentions, create an environment in which all students have the opportunity to be successful, and support staff in their growth as content specialists.”
He continued:
“The reason we chose Clarity and Efficacy is due to the fact that both of these are visible learning strategies that have an effect size more than double a year’s worth of growth when implemented with fidelity.”
