BUSD considers teaming with social service agency for grant

BARSTOW • While the majority of students don’t hold down regular jobs, the economy has still taken its toll on Barstow’s youth, according to officials from the local school district and social service agencies.

Students have felt the affects of parents losing jobs and increased stress factors in the home that often spill over into the classroom. The economy is just one of the factors that has spurred Barstow Unified School District officials to consider applying for a grant from the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral health aimed at preventing dropouts.

“Students can’t learn if their emotional and social state is not in a good place,” said BUSD Superintendent Susan Levine. According to Pat Cormican, area director of LSS Community Care Centers, formerly known as Lutheran Social Services, increasing numbers of students in the Barstow area are needing help with problems created by poverty, low parent education or poor parenting skills — exacerbated lately by the loss of jobs.

“There is a sufficient level of need with the economy like it is,” Cormican said.

The grant would give BUSD $250,000 a year over three years to provide students, and their family members, services after school and in the evenings like counseling in areas including divorce, parent incarceration, and grief, according to Levine. The district will have to decide by the end of next week whether to apply for the grant, Levine said. If they pursue the grant, the district would receive funding by July, she said.

While schools have counseling staff on site, social and emotional issues often go unaddressed. “Their number one duty is academic counseling,” Levine said.

The grant would be part BUSD’s overall dropout prevention pilot program, Levine said. But that doesn’t mean that the services would be aimed just at junior high or high school students — it would be for all K-12, she noted.

“If they have more problems in their family, their attendance can start to wane at a very young age,” she said.

LSS partners with local family resource agency Desert Sanctuary and already provides a host of services to both youth and families in the community, Cormican noted. By working specifically with BUSD, Cormican said she hopes to better be able to reach youth who need help with behavior issues and “give them the coping skills to exist under stressors in regular daily life.”

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com

Current services LSS provides students:
• Crossroads, a program of the National Curriculum and Training Institute (NTCI), that works with the Barstow Police Department, County of San Bernardino Probation Department where students learn in a group setting how to make better choices.
• Therapeutic counseling via referrals from the school district.
• Anger management meetings.
• Group or one-on-one counseling sessions.