Class act: Armed for success: Helping military kids thrive
Being a youngster with parents serving in the military can be a real challenge—especially in a time of war. It’s a life that often involves frequent transfers to new homes and schools and saying goodbye to a mother or father who’s risking life and limb in a far-off land.
This is a special population of students, coping with unique challenges. And at schools like Las Posas Elementary in the Pleasant Valley School District, they are getting the support they need to succeed.
Almost half of the 530 students enrolled at this K-5 school come from families stationed at Naval Base Ventura County and have a parent deployed off base. Nearly 300 sailors—men and women training for their first duty assignments—also live on the base for brief periods of intensive study.
To address the needs of military families and students and support the sailors stationed in their backyard, the parents, teachers and staff from the Las Posas community have collaborated with military officials to deliver services and support that benefit Las Posas students, military families and sailors living far from home.
Working closely with school officials, the Fleet and Family Support Center operates a Military Kids Club on campus, engaging students in therapeutic—and fun—activities.
The school’s Military Families Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the school PTA, has devised a range of services that connect students from military and non-military families in mutually supportive activities. Students take field trips to the base and perform for sailors. Enlisted men and women volunteer at school functions, tutor students and lend their talents to other projects that enrich the school.
Classes “adopt” sailors from the base, writing them letters of encouragement and inviting them to school events; and students prepare special gift bags to welcome newly arrived military families.
The school celebrates the achievements of its military families by posting honors and news on a special wall, along with photos of reunited families and maps showing where parents are deployed.
CSBA recognized the program with a Golden Bell Award in 2011.
“Student learning is at the heart of every decision our school board makes,” says Pleasant Valley School Board member Suzanne Kitchens, who represents Region 11 on CSBA’s Board of Directors. “Lending our support to the Military Family Advisory Committee was a natural outcome.”
—Carol Brydolf