BUSD selects consultant to help homeless students

BARSTOW • David Wishnewsky got a call on his cell phone this week. A homeless student needed some basic things — food and shoes. The school district arranged to get the student a grocery card and size seven shoes from Payless ShoeSource.

With similar situations becoming more common, Barstow Unified School District officials selected Wishnewsky, program coordinator of drug and alcohol prevention at Barstow Recovery Services, as the school district’s first homeless liaison. BUSD received a $10,000 two-year grant from the county to target homeless students. BUSD’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the consultant agreement at its previous school board meeting.

Part of Wishnewsky’s work will focus on aiding homeless students at Barstow High School where the district believes figures are the most underreported. Luckily for Wishnewsky, he already has a presence on campus from being the advisor of Sober Club for nine years.

Principal Scott Godfrey said Wishnewsky is a perfect fit for helping homeless students at Barstow High.

“He has a really good rapport with our students,” Godfrey said.

There are currently 93 reported homeless students in grades K-12, which is an increase of 25 students from last school year.

“It has definitely become more of an issue in the past few years,” Wishnewsky said. His first two plans are basic — to identify students, particularly high-schoolers, who are homeless, and then to get them some immediate aid. Helping students by providing things like food, clothes or school supplies has fallen into place with phone calls already rolling in. Figuring out who is homeless, however, is a bigger looming challenge. Wishnewsky emphasized that he didn’t want homeless students fearing that they would be on a list and be stigmatized.

“Teenagers are very sensitive about that,” he said. He said the best way he knew of identifying homeless students was through existing relationships on campus.

“They come to staff members of the school or whoever they trust,” he said.

Wishnewsky also plans for his liaison position to fill the gap between the school district and other local social service agencies. He wants to be able to refer students to the agencies for services BUSD can’t provide “instead of saying we don’t do that, you’re out of luck,” he said.

Wishnewsky believes his background as a drug and alcohol counselor will help while working with students who’s families may be dealing with substance issues as well as homelessness.

“A lot of people turn to drugs or alcohol when they find themselves in that position,” he said.

Because homelessness is becoming an even more pervasive issue, Wishnewsky said he doesn’t want to give anyone a false sense of hope, which is why he’s keeping his plans tangible and short-term, for now.

For a teenager a week can feel like forever, Wishnewsky said. “We want something to happen right away.” Anyone wanting to help can contact him at david_wishnewsky@yahoo.com.

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(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com