Minutes-03-09-2023-Joint Meeting with School Boards

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5 Andre Richmond said they have a tutoring program there specifically for the New Hope Elementary School students that live in that community. He said there's an apartment that was converted to an office for this purpose. Commissioner Richards said it seems like a solid partnership with the school identifying students that live there. She said there's no way a community program would know each child's needs the same way as the school did. She asked if this could be done in other places. Sarah Smylie said she was not sure. She said that the school community is focused on building community relationships at Gateway. Chair Bedford said the rental of the space is through the Health Department and the Department of Social Services. She said they are trying to have better outcomes for children and their parents. Commissioner Richards said the Health Department and the DSS pay the rent and staff four days a week to provide wrap around services for the community. She said it seems like a great partnership model. Chair Bedford asked how many years the county has had the space at Gateway. Bonnie Hammersley said this is the second year the county has been in that space. Andre Richmond spoke on school safety. He said there is a great collaboration with the Sheriff's Office and community policing within the school district. He said they have an anonymous tip app to provide information and they have been using that for a few years now and it's been working well. He said they are looking at implementing metal detectors in schools for added security. He said he's glad to be a representative on the school safety task force. He said that for external security there could be additional sidewalks provided for students to walk to and from school. He said that Cedar Ridge has had this issue and hopes they can look at this in the near future. He said the Board of Education is looking at interventions to improve discipline and behavior at schools. Vice-Chair McKee said the metal detectors has brought up a lot of conversation. He said in a way, he hates to see it, but thinks it is important now. Commissioner Fowler said she serves on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, and they have a lot of diversion programs that are available for students. Andre Richmond said they have a great partnership with JCPC and those diversion programs. Commissioner Fowler said JCPC mentioned they have gotten referrals from OCS, but zero from CHCCS and she wanted to make them aware of the program and supports also. Commissioner Richards asked if there are statistics on discipline. She said she would like to see the racial breakdown. Will Atherton said OCS staff can provide that. He said the Board of Education will have a retreat on this topic. Commissioner Richards asked if truancy has been an issue. Patrick Abele said he does not have the numbers with him but they have not been seeing an alarming rate but they do have issues with attendance and arriving to school on time. He said there are programs with social workers and counselors that intervene if students have missed 3 days of school. He said OCS staff can provide the statistics. Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked for the information by school level. Sarah Smylie said OCS staff could provide that. Chair Bedford asked if they are still working with Boomerang. Andre Richmond said they are. Chair Bedford said there are some pedestrian plans that are included in SPOT 7 but said they should not get their hopes up about them receiving approval. Will Atherton said Cedar Ridge High School is by far the biggest area of concern and there was a pedestrian hit within the last few years. He said that this is not advertised as a walk to school location but some walk regardless.