August 17, 2024 • 30 mins
Chanelle Omiwade is the Program Director for Communities in Schools of Houston and Adrianne A. Williams is a Student Support Manager at Lamar High School. CIS helps parents and students navigate the school year from making sure they have a great breakfast to giving tips on good sleeping hygiene so students get the rest they need. They also have a mental health initiative that allows students to get help anonymously. They get help from over 300 non-profits in town to provide all the services they need. Go to: www.cishouston.org
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public Affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that their opinions expressed on this show
do not necessarily reflect those held by this radio station,
its management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurence. I am the Texan from France, and today
(00:27):
I welcome Communities and Schools of Houston. They're an organization
that has been working with HIV for many years to
better the lives of our students and to encourage parents
to do things like send their kids to school and
make sure that the schools are also places where the
kids are actually happy, in a psychological place where they
(00:47):
can learn. They also are helpful in finding information about
where to send your kids to school. We're even going
to talk about the new transportation changes. Some of you
that have kids know that the bust are changing. We'll
talk about that. They have an awesome mental health initiative
and they have some tips for parents that are sending
(01:07):
their kids to school, and I think that's probably super useful,
especially for the parents that are sending their kids to
school for the first time in Houston. Did y'all know
that we have a bunch of people moving to this
city on a continual basis, and then it just keeps
bigger and bigger and bigger. I noticed it when I
drive around, because it's harder to drive around. My guest our,
Chanelle Omi Wade. She is the program director for Communities
(01:31):
in Schools of Houston and Adrian Williams is a student
support manager at Lamar High School, which happens to be
my alma mater two. I did two years at Lamar
High School. I'll never forget taking a tour of the
school from the for the first time. And I had
just moved from France. My parents had asked us, Hey,
(01:51):
y'all want to go to private schools like you have
been in France or do you want to go to
public school and experience the melting pot? And and I
were like, melting pot? Duh that send us to Because
of course we had in mind in the late eighties
was that it would be like the breakfast club. And
we walked into Lamar High School and it was like
(02:13):
the breakfast club. I mean, the rows of lockers, the
long hallways, nothing like the old buildings that we had
gone to school and in France, and the theater where
they actually I mean a real theater with an audience
as opposed to just a stage with a floor where
people sit on the floor. No no, no, no, raked seating,
(02:34):
a theater, a backstage, amenities, lights, sound system. It was
unbelievable to me that this was available in a high school.
And of course the library which was it looks different
than the one in the breakfast club, but it's just
this big, beautiful building and of course thousands of books.
It was just unbelievably cool to discover that school. And
(02:55):
as you know, if you've been to more than one
school in Houston, especially if you've been to Lamar School
and you've been to some of the schools in the
poor neighborhoods, not everybody gets this awesome experience. Now, if
you go to Lamar High School, you're in a good
place to learn because the environment is so beautiful, the
teachers are great, the students are well disciplined, they're there
to learn and have fun, and it's just an awesome
(03:16):
place to go to school. If you go to a
poorer place where the school is literally falling apart on
your head while you're walking down the hallway, well you're
not in a great place to learn, it's not going
to better your mood, especially if you're a kid who
doesn't like to wake up early. And I've already mentioned
this several times on this show, but considering that the
literacy rate of third graders graduating into fourth grade in
(03:40):
Houston is around thirty percent, that means that seventy percent
of the kids they graduate into fourth grade cannot read
at the third grade level, and that means that they'll
be at best functionally illiterate for the rest of their lives.
And that's a catastrophic time bomb that is exploding in
slow motion on us because all these people are essentially
(04:01):
condemned to not get the jobs that they have a
vocation for. They just don't develop the way they should.
And there's nothing wrong with the kids. It's just that
we as a society like the political will to build
better schools in the poor neighborhoods. We have the money
and the talent, and I think that that's what communities
and schools of Houston is all about. It's proof that
if you just let people do a good job of
(04:23):
teaching and enabling teaching, you get great results. Chanelle, I
hope that's a fair introduction for.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What y'all do.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But y'all are essentially a support group. I'm simplifying it,
but you're kind of like a support group for the
schools and you act like a liaison, a connection between
the parents and the school. You're there to help people
figure it out, right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, CIS is an educational nonprofit and we're functioning on
one hundred and sixty three campuses and also the.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Lone star college system.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah yeah, in Houston, and so just working with students
from elementary all.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The way through.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
For some reason, a lot of the information doesn't seem
to get through to everybody who needs it, and part
of the problems seems to be that not everybody knows
where to look, right, So I should mention the website,
by the.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Way, please do community. I love this thing.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I know, it's well designed.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's a nice look at. Website.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Communities and Schools of Houston is at Cishuston dot or
rg Cishuston dot organ. Like I said, it really is
well designed. So what are some of the stuff that
people can get from the website?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So you definitely find out who we are and what
we do, because those are usually the first questions right,
and then after that you want to know, well where
are they? And all of those things are listed as tabs,
and so finding out about what resources are available to
you and your students on their campus. If we're not
(05:58):
on your child's campus, where are are we close to you?
If we're not in that area, which I doubt it,
but if we happen not to be, there's still a
list of resources that you can tap into according to
your needs.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
What if somebody finds out that communities in schools is
not at their school, how do they get them in
their school? What's the process?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
First?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
If somebody wanted to invite us over, they would just
call us email call us are sending an email from
the school and our number is seven one three six
five four one five one five, Say hey, I really
want cis If you're needing back to school back to
school supplies, if you're needing connections and learning, well, what
(06:43):
exactly do I do with teachers? How do I communicate
with them and get what I need done?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
If you notice your student is not exactly motivated to
go back to school and you're like, oh, man, I
wish I had another caring adult to partner up with
my child.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's what that's where we are and that's what we do.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
If you happen to have situations that kind of go
beyond the scope of the schoolhouse and you're saying, hey,
we're having issues with transportation, Yeah, with transportation that may
come up this year a lot, you can say, hey,
this is what is really going on in my life.
The student support manager or student support specialists will get
(07:26):
with you and do an assessment and find out what
all is going on and be able to pinpoint what
is it that we can do in the office, and
what is it that we can do in connection with
our three hundred community partners.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
How do we get you connected in the community to
get what you need.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Who are these community partners?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You can give us some examples, like I said, three
hundred yeahs, so some we are partnered with United Way.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Huge that covers.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That's an umbrella organization that helps to fund countless nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
In talent countless countless.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
From kitchens to backpack for schools, organized that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The Houston Food Bank. Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Right now, I'm thinking of all our mental health partners.
So I'm thinking of Family Houston and the Pelchin of
course we have Nick Finnigan and Montro Center.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
There is just a whole host.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So it's kind of nuts and bold stuff and it
kind of covers any from from mental health to physical health.
It should be said that, uh, if your kid shows
up to school and they're hungry, they're not going to
be able to learn. You can't learn if your brain
is hungry, and that's Uh. Do they still have free
breakfast for the kids who qualify? Yeah, they do, thankfully,
(08:42):
because that would I would say that's one of the
most important things that you can do for school for
poor kids. You are listening to Houston PA, Houston's Public
Affairs Show. My name is Laurent. My guests today are
from Communities and Schools of Houston. They're online at ci
Shuston dot org. C I Shuston dot org. Adrianne Williams
(09:03):
is a student support manager at Lamar High School and
Chanelle Omi Wade is the program director for Communities and
Schools of Houston. Y'all have a bunch of tips for
parents to, I guess discuss the new school year with
their with their students. Adrian would you like to ask
you would you like to give us some examples I
know that the fourth one on the list is make
(09:24):
good attendance non negotiable. As though being in school wasn't
the law, it literally is against the law for kids
not to be in school. The police can can do
something about that. It would be better if the police
were not involved in the lives of our students, though.
That's that's what advice, you know, except for providing security.
That's what we like our police to do. But yeah,
(09:44):
you got you got some kids that are just not
showing up to school. And it seems to me that
since it's on your tip for parents, you're recognizing that
part of the problem is the parent. I said it,
said it, But how receptive are the parents When you
talk to them about these problems. You usually find out
(10:07):
that they have their own own challenges, right, Yeah, it's
not that they're just I don't care.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Oh absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
No. You know, like Chanelle said just a couple of
seconds ago, that you know, the parents have already started
with understanding the challenges that their families face, and they're
coming to us already because they want to address this
before Monday, which is the first day of school at Lamar.
And this is probably across the board with all of
(10:36):
the schools that we're in in.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The radio time machine, I think it'll be it'll have
been last week.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But oh goodness, Yeah, that's fine. But that's fine.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We're at the beginning of the school year and recording
a little bit before the actual start of the year,
just so that people listening are in line with what's
going on. But yeah, so you've got proactive parents and
y'all are ready to help them out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, that's the most important.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yeah, we've hosted each school, at least at Lamar, there
was a day for each student to come to pick
up their schedules, ticket computers, and that's been an awesome
opportunity for us to meet with practically every student that
walk through the door to say, hey, are you ready
(11:21):
for the school year? So trying to be a cheerleader
and encourage them, so as the parents are that first tip,
stay positive and encourage the student about, you know, having
an awesome year. We're also in support of that messaging.
So we're telling the kids we're here. Just in case
you thought we weren't going to be here this school year,
We're here.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know where we are. Do you have any needs already?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
So we're already asking the question even before school starts,
and most of them had parents that accompanied them. So
we're asking the parents the same question, like do you
have everything? Do you have school supplies, school uniforms, clear backpacks?
Because that's a Lamar thing. How can we support that?
So just having that positive and seeing this trusting adult
(12:05):
face that they've had if they were returning students, and
then on.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
On Friday we'll have did it again.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
We'll have a freshman who've never seen us before, but
we'll be able to get them that same messaging to say, hey,
just in case you didn't know what resources are here
on campus, CIS is one of them, and let me
tell you how you can access it. So we're already
planning for that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
All those middle.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Schoolers coming to high school's say such a huge jump, right,
The school is a transition the schools. My impression is
that the middle schools are just smaller than the high
schools generation, especially at Lamar.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
We have on average about three thousand, one hundred thirty
two hundred students at Lamar.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It's a massive school, huge and it could.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Be intimidating for an eighth grader transitioning into high school. Yes,
so cis as far as myself. At Lamar, we have
a team of three, so I'm the student support manager.
We have Oliver Burbridge who is the student support specialist,
and Debonie Thiadina who is a mental health support specialist.
And one of our tasks that we put on ourselves
(13:15):
is we're going to position ourselves in the heavy populated
areas as the student comes to a sign, a smoke signal,
whatever it is that we need to say, do you need,
how do you get how do you navigate these hallways?
Let me look at your class schedule, because they're they
(13:35):
don't they are afraid. They have a little bit of
fear because it's nervousness and anxiety about looking at this
class schedule and it's like what is N one O two?
And because they don't know the building and so we're there.
Principal Grades is really good about making sure the administration
are also at these key points because again it's a
(13:55):
massive school, so you kind of need all hands on deck.
And that's what we've been And because I've been at
Lamar for the last three years and so this will
be my fourth school year and you know, I love it.
I'm passionate about the work that CIS does on campus,
and I look forward to every school year because it
just gives me an opportunity to support our students.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You're listening to Houston PA, Houston's Public Affairs show.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
My name is Laurent.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
My guests are here from Communities in Schools of Houston.
Chanelle Omiwade is the program director for Communities in Schools
of Houston and Adriann Williams is a student support manager
at Lamar High School. They're online and you can get
a lot of information that you need to get in
contact with Communities in school by their just going to
(14:42):
their website, Cishuston dot org, CIS Houston dot org. We've
already mentioned this. If your bus, if your school bus
schedule has changed and you're in limbo, they're gonna be
able to help you. All you have to do is
go to CIS Houston dot org. Also, hey, if you
have a motivated students, you can just send them to
one of the counselors in the school and say.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Y'all, we're CIS exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Somebody's out there that way. Take a left and a
right and go downstairs and then go back upstairs. Take
a left and you'll find it.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You will find it or not, we'll find you.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Like I said, going to school in France and America
is so completely different. You know, very small schools, huge campuses,
like they talk about campuses, and then you go outside
and there's a footballs field, a baseballs field, a track field.
It's awesome. It's absolutely awesome. It's what school should be like.
Lots of exercise. And by the way, that's one of
the tips that you have for parents, prioritizing the basics sleep, exercise,
(15:39):
and nutrition. Who wants to talk to me about that,
because I'm extremely interested in it. I was talking about
how breakfast is an important meal because your brain can't
be hungry if you want to learn. Also, it helps
not to have had a super heavy meal and try
to learn right afterwards because that puts you to sleep.
But what I'm saying is that the nutrition is important,
(16:00):
but obviously sleep is super important. And well, we have
a country that is having a health crisis because we
don't exercise enough. So how do you approach that.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Well, we have our managers on campus and they do
a great job of working with our students at whatever age,
and they actually go over.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Sleep hygiene, Like, so what's that?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So sleep hygiene is taken into account, what is your
bedtime routine?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Do you have lights on? Do you have your electronics going?
Is all that in the room with you? How do
we start weeding that out?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So anybody who's kind of like super nervous that I'm
even talking about it, I promise that over time, paying
attention to it and finding out what your personal setup
should be.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's just helpful.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
And so the same way we have good habits and
our hygiene in life just to stay clean, we want
to get some good, wholesome complete sleep and kind of
going over their.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Routine to sleep in the dark. Yeah, in the dark
it could be a little cold.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, don't blast your face with an iPad or an
iPhone because it keeps you awake. Those blue light effects
is very real. Those screens shine a light into your
face literally, that will keep you awake. They do that
for force interrogation when they've got terrorists and they shine
a light in their face to keep them awake and
(17:30):
deprive them of sleep. And we're doing it voluntarily in
our bedrooms. It's ridiculous. If first of all, a physical
book is much better to put you asleep because the
refracting light on the page will tire your eyes and
compel you to close them. Yeah. Right, And people don't
always realize this, but if you have a kindle, it
(17:52):
actually works the exact same way because the light of
the kindle is not coming from the screen. The screen
of the kindle is actually an electronic page. It's flat
and it's it's it's like a piece of plastic. It
doesn't actually generate in a light you see at night
with a kindle because it has tiny little led lights
on the side of the screen and it shines light
(18:15):
onto the page, which essentially has the exact same effect
as a bed light shining light onto your book. So
you can use a kindle to read. Yes, I think you.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
May have had a session.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well I know, I read sixty seventy books a year,
and that's one of the best ways to go to sleep,
even if well, you know, if it's a real page
turner and a thriller, so you have to it's good
to have several books going at the same time. But no,
it's very real. If you want to go to sleep,
like study right, read your biology book before bed. No,
(18:53):
I'm kidding. Choose a subject that is more boring, like mathematics.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Goods.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Oh, I'm sorry that would be for me. Whatever works
for you, But no, I think that that's something that
we've sort of the phones crashed into our lives and
we're still evolving to live with them.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Also, proper nutrition, and so we're thinking about you know,
I guess when you're thinking students, you think proper nutrition
is like I'm going to go in and make sure breakfast.
Make sure breakfast is good, and that is good. We
want to get a great and healthy start. We actually
want to get more protein and less sugar yeap, so
that we can keep our brain going for a little
(19:32):
while throughout the day, being able to fuel your body.
And then on select campuses, we actually have in partnership
with the Houston Food Bank backpack Buddy, and so students
are able to go home with food for over the
weekend and things like that when they're not getting that
(19:55):
from day to day at school.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
As an easy tip that will work for a surprising
number of parents and students, if they love a coke
in the car on the way to school, try to
replace the coke with a sparkling water. I discovered this myself.
I didn't actually crave the Coca cola. I like the fizzes.
And when I discovered that all I wanted was to fizz,
(20:19):
I gave up Coca Cola overnight. Literally, I just I stopped.
And it wasn't an effort at all. It was like, oh,
wait a minute, I don't actually care for the flavor.
I just wanted to fizz in my mouth. And there's
a ton of products out there now they want to
sell you. They want to sell you a bunch of
fizzy water.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Try that.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It's really worth it, because I would say for the
vast majority of kids out there, it's just gonna work.
They'll be all it's cool. And also it becomes hip. Yes,
and if the friends are doing it, then hey, it's
good brainwashing.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well that's what's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
It's about right. We're essentially brainwashing kids to be good citizens,
and there's nothing wrong with it. We are human beings
are a monkey see monkey doo species. That's how we learn.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Did you bring up a good point water? Yeah, that's
the last.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Staying hydrated with a.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Little limit in it maybe, yeah, very good for your health.
Keep the st away. We didn't talk a whole lot
about the mental health and initiative that you have h
but what it basically amounts to is that if you
have a child who is unhappy in school for whatever reason,
you can actually help them directly. And again that's something
(21:28):
if the student is bashful about going to communities and
schools of Houston to ask for help directly, the parents
can do that. And again they can just go to
Cishuston dot org to kickstart that process, right And Chanelle,
you've already mentioned that if CIS is not in your
child's school, you'll have a list of the nearest.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, the nearest school. So we're we're only allowed to
service to students that we have in our school. Yeah,
but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't give you a
referral into the community.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
An Adrian, You and your staff or your colleagues, your
job is essentially to have an open door policy.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Absolutely, we have students who will come in understand the
services that we're able to provide them, and then they're
bringing friends to say, hey, you can come to CIS.
It's a trusted person. It's going to be kept confidential.
You can just talk to them about what you have
going on. So I am a licensed professional counselor, and
(22:33):
Miss Debunie Thianina is a licensed social worker and mister
Burbridge also has a mental health background and is a
retired educator, former principal And.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
So, oh wow, so you're just talking about.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh yeah, So we have a pretty great dynamic and
we allow the kids to choose who they feel most
comfortable with speaking with. They can speak to one of us,
all of us. It just depends on where they are.
And with our mental health initiative, we understand the challenges
of coming to school even for that student who has food,
(23:10):
has transportation, that doesn't negate the fact that there may
be some life experiences that creates stress, that creates anxiety.
It may not be those basic needs, but it may
be other things. And so they're able to come to
us and talk to us about that. Oh absolutely. So
we each have the way we're set up esthetically is
each of us have our own office. So Lamar has
(23:32):
been great about giving us that space and we're able
to bring that student in close the door and they're
able to talk to us and know that it stays
within the confined of the room, outside of the things
that are reportable. But for you know, the things that
they really want to share. We keep it there so
that we can then figure out, Okay, how do we
support you if you feel as though you're not doing
(23:55):
so well in this particular class, let me teach you
some advocacy skills. First, let's kind of decompress, you know,
release the stress and that anxiety.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Here's some water.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
You know, afriator in the office have a microwave, so
they need to heat up their lunch. I mean, just
simple things like that go a very long way with
the students if they know that, hey, I don't even
have to stand in this really long line to heat
up my lunch. I can go talk to Mss Williams
and we can sit in there. I can eat my
lunch and I can express what's going on. And then
(24:26):
we'll do some tips on how to decompress and settle down,
and then then talk about a game plan in terms
of okay, how do we help you do a little
bit better in that class? Do you feel like we
need to go talk with that teacher or your academic theme.
Do we need to send an email? And then we
also teach them and empower them to be able to
utilize these skills independently. Let's open up your laptop and
(24:49):
let's send an email, and we do it together so
that they feel confident. And then it teaches those life
skills after high school because we're trying to you know,
we want them to be successful in school, but we
also want them to be successful in life. And so
these basic skills in teaching them how to navigate systems
is instrumental in you know, getting them to that place
(25:10):
that we desire for them to be achieving in life.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Well, and especially for the younger pupils to have the
support of a grown up who has experienced a professional Uh.
They might have the right idea, but they might be
afraid that it's not the right idea. And if you
were to tell them, hey, let's write an email real quick,
it confirms their their initial instinct. And now that you
have the authority the backup, you're basically you're basically like
(25:35):
Rambo backing them up.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Don't worry, you don't don't worry your bad almost like
I just thought i'd throw that out there since it's
my name.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I want to say also that Lamar is a unique
setup and that they have three three but most of
our most of our sites have won.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
And so what we do.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
If if the person hired is not a licensed individual,
We partner with well First, we work within our own organization.
We have a mobile mental health team and that's a
team of I don't know the count right now, but
there's a team of a few individuals and they're able
(26:24):
to go to each to different schools that we have
and provide services on campus.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Like Lucy sets up shop and yes, you can think
just like that, right, and she's giving a friend just
come on in private.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Lucy charges your opinion, We're not charging anything. We're not
charging you anything. And this is huge because we do
work with all students in all parents, and there is
a whole section of our fantastic workers in late in
(27:00):
Houston where if you don't go to work, you don't
get paid and I may not be able to take
off to take you to counseling. Well CIS has brought
it into the building that we can still see about
your child's mental wellness without affecting you more negatively economically, right, yeah,
(27:21):
And so it's a huge service that we can bring
that right on end, there's like I said, one hundred
and sixty three campuses, so our team is not able
to go to each one of those. So what we've
done is partner with the Pelchin, partner with Family Services,
partner with Nick Finnigan, and get extra therapists that can
(27:43):
come on campus to provide this service instead of them
going going away from school that means you're not in class.
You know, there's time in traffic to go. More than
likely you're not coming back for the rest of that day.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right Yeah, And so with this you can.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
With our help, we help coordinate that that it's a
part of your day. We know on what day you
need this support. We have it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It's in the schedule. We can get you in.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
It doesn't disrupt teachers, it doesn't disrupt the administration.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
They can come in, get what they need and go
back to class and they have gained all of those
teaching minutes. Right, teachers are able to teach those kids
because they are there and they're not away.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Right is communities and schools funded by donations and grants
from the community. You'll get some of our tax dollars too, though, right,
we do, and that we are y'all should get more. Yes,
say it loud, Yeah, this is where our tax dollars
should do. Yes, those kids are the most precious commodity.
(28:54):
They're the most precious resource we have. They're actually, biologically speaking,
they're the only responsibility we have. Everything else is superfluous.
And if the audience is like me and they're hearing
that Lamar High School has three counselors, which sounds not enough,
and then most schools have only one, and then there's
a bunch of schools that have zero, then we should
(29:15):
be able to grow those services by donating to communities
and schools that it seems like y'all need, We need
more of you. Yes, and we can also help to
fund the partner organizations like the Pelchin and help them
grow that. I mentioned this already in the show. We
like the political will to make this happen, but we
(29:35):
have the money. We have all these rich corporations who
are constantly looking at where they should put their money
to donate.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
They donate.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
They donate billions of dollars per year altogether. You can
go to communities and schools online. They're at CI shuston
dot or rg CI shuston dot or org. And as usual,
if you have any questions related to Houston, PA. You
can just send me an email Texan from France at
gmail dot com. Texan from France at gmail dot com.
(30:07):
You'll get an answer, because I will answer personally. My
name is Laurent I am the Texan from France and
this has been Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, Houston
Strong
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public Affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that their opinions expressed on this show
do not necessarily reflect those held by this radio station,
its management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurence. I am the Texan from France, and today
(00:27):
I welcome Communities and Schools of Houston. They're an organization
that has been working with HIV for many years to
better the lives of our students and to encourage parents
to do things like send their kids to school and
make sure that the schools are also places where the
kids are actually happy, in a psychological place where they
(00:47):
can learn. They also are helpful in finding information about
where to send your kids to school. We're even going
to talk about the new transportation changes. Some of you
that have kids know that the bust are changing. We'll
talk about that. They have an awesome mental health initiative
and they have some tips for parents that are sending
(01:07):
their kids to school, and I think that's probably super useful,
especially for the parents that are sending their kids to
school for the first time in Houston. Did y'all know
that we have a bunch of people moving to this
city on a continual basis, and then it just keeps
bigger and bigger and bigger. I noticed it when I
drive around, because it's harder to drive around. My guest our,
Chanelle Omi Wade. She is the program director for Communities
(01:31):
in Schools of Houston and Adrian Williams is a student
support manager at Lamar High School, which happens to be
my alma mater two. I did two years at Lamar
High School. I'll never forget taking a tour of the
school from the for the first time. And I had
just moved from France. My parents had asked us, Hey,
(01:51):
y'all want to go to private schools like you have
been in France or do you want to go to
public school and experience the melting pot? And and I
were like, melting pot? Duh that send us to Because
of course we had in mind in the late eighties
was that it would be like the breakfast club. And
we walked into Lamar High School and it was like
(02:13):
the breakfast club. I mean, the rows of lockers, the
long hallways, nothing like the old buildings that we had
gone to school and in France, and the theater where
they actually I mean a real theater with an audience
as opposed to just a stage with a floor where
people sit on the floor. No no, no, no, raked seating,
(02:34):
a theater, a backstage, amenities, lights, sound system. It was
unbelievable to me that this was available in a high school.
And of course the library which was it looks different
than the one in the breakfast club, but it's just
this big, beautiful building and of course thousands of books.
It was just unbelievably cool to discover that school. And
(02:55):
as you know, if you've been to more than one
school in Houston, especially if you've been to Lamar School
and you've been to some of the schools in the
poor neighborhoods, not everybody gets this awesome experience. Now, if
you go to Lamar High School, you're in a good
place to learn because the environment is so beautiful, the
teachers are great, the students are well disciplined, they're there
to learn and have fun, and it's just an awesome
(03:16):
place to go to school. If you go to a
poorer place where the school is literally falling apart on
your head while you're walking down the hallway, well you're
not in a great place to learn, it's not going
to better your mood, especially if you're a kid who
doesn't like to wake up early. And I've already mentioned
this several times on this show, but considering that the
literacy rate of third graders graduating into fourth grade in
(03:40):
Houston is around thirty percent, that means that seventy percent
of the kids they graduate into fourth grade cannot read
at the third grade level, and that means that they'll
be at best functionally illiterate for the rest of their lives.
And that's a catastrophic time bomb that is exploding in
slow motion on us because all these people are essentially
(04:01):
condemned to not get the jobs that they have a
vocation for. They just don't develop the way they should.
And there's nothing wrong with the kids. It's just that
we as a society like the political will to build
better schools in the poor neighborhoods. We have the money
and the talent, and I think that that's what communities
and schools of Houston is all about. It's proof that
if you just let people do a good job of
(04:23):
teaching and enabling teaching, you get great results. Chanelle, I
hope that's a fair introduction for.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What y'all do.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But y'all are essentially a support group. I'm simplifying it,
but you're kind of like a support group for the
schools and you act like a liaison, a connection between
the parents and the school. You're there to help people
figure it out, right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, CIS is an educational nonprofit and we're functioning on
one hundred and sixty three campuses and also the.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Lone star college system.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah yeah, in Houston, and so just working with students
from elementary all.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The way through.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
For some reason, a lot of the information doesn't seem
to get through to everybody who needs it, and part
of the problems seems to be that not everybody knows
where to look, right, So I should mention the website,
by the.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Way, please do community. I love this thing.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, I know, it's well designed.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's a nice look at. Website.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Communities and Schools of Houston is at Cishuston dot or
rg Cishuston dot organ. Like I said, it really is
well designed. So what are some of the stuff that
people can get from the website?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So you definitely find out who we are and what
we do, because those are usually the first questions right,
and then after that you want to know, well where
are they? And all of those things are listed as tabs,
and so finding out about what resources are available to
you and your students on their campus. If we're not
(05:58):
on your child's campus, where are are we close to you?
If we're not in that area, which I doubt it,
but if we happen not to be, there's still a
list of resources that you can tap into according to
your needs.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
What if somebody finds out that communities in schools is
not at their school, how do they get them in
their school? What's the process?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
First?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
If somebody wanted to invite us over, they would just
call us email call us are sending an email from
the school and our number is seven one three six
five four one five one five, Say hey, I really
want cis If you're needing back to school back to
school supplies, if you're needing connections and learning, well, what
(06:43):
exactly do I do with teachers? How do I communicate
with them and get what I need done?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
If you notice your student is not exactly motivated to
go back to school and you're like, oh, man, I
wish I had another caring adult to partner up with
my child.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's what that's where we are and that's what we do.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
If you happen to have situations that kind of go
beyond the scope of the schoolhouse and you're saying, hey,
we're having issues with transportation, Yeah, with transportation that may
come up this year a lot, you can say, hey,
this is what is really going on in my life.
The student support manager or student support specialists will get
(07:26):
with you and do an assessment and find out what
all is going on and be able to pinpoint what
is it that we can do in the office, and
what is it that we can do in connection with
our three hundred community partners.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
How do we get you connected in the community to
get what you need.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Who are these community partners?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You can give us some examples, like I said, three
hundred yeahs, so some we are partnered with United Way.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Huge that covers.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That's an umbrella organization that helps to fund countless nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
In talent countless countless.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
From kitchens to backpack for schools, organized that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The Houston Food Bank. Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Right now, I'm thinking of all our mental health partners.
So I'm thinking of Family Houston and the Pelchin of
course we have Nick Finnigan and Montro Center.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
There is just a whole host.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So it's kind of nuts and bold stuff and it
kind of covers any from from mental health to physical health.
It should be said that, uh, if your kid shows
up to school and they're hungry, they're not going to
be able to learn. You can't learn if your brain
is hungry, and that's Uh. Do they still have free
breakfast for the kids who qualify? Yeah, they do, thankfully,
(08:42):
because that would I would say that's one of the
most important things that you can do for school for
poor kids. You are listening to Houston PA, Houston's Public
Affairs Show. My name is Laurent. My guests today are
from Communities and Schools of Houston. They're online at ci
Shuston dot org. C I Shuston dot org. Adrianne Williams
(09:03):
is a student support manager at Lamar High School and
Chanelle Omi Wade is the program director for Communities and
Schools of Houston. Y'all have a bunch of tips for
parents to, I guess discuss the new school year with
their with their students. Adrian would you like to ask
you would you like to give us some examples I
know that the fourth one on the list is make
(09:24):
good attendance non negotiable. As though being in school wasn't
the law, it literally is against the law for kids
not to be in school. The police can can do
something about that. It would be better if the police
were not involved in the lives of our students, though.
That's that's what advice, you know, except for providing security.
That's what we like our police to do. But yeah,
(09:44):
you got you got some kids that are just not
showing up to school. And it seems to me that
since it's on your tip for parents, you're recognizing that
part of the problem is the parent. I said it,
said it, But how receptive are the parents When you
talk to them about these problems. You usually find out
(10:07):
that they have their own own challenges, right, Yeah, it's
not that they're just I don't care.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Oh absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
No. You know, like Chanelle said just a couple of
seconds ago, that you know, the parents have already started
with understanding the challenges that their families face, and they're
coming to us already because they want to address this
before Monday, which is the first day of school at Lamar.
And this is probably across the board with all of
(10:36):
the schools that we're in in.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The radio time machine, I think it'll be it'll have
been last week.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But oh goodness, Yeah, that's fine. But that's fine.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We're at the beginning of the school year and recording
a little bit before the actual start of the year,
just so that people listening are in line with what's
going on. But yeah, so you've got proactive parents and
y'all are ready to help them out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, that's the most important.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yeah, we've hosted each school, at least at Lamar, there
was a day for each student to come to pick
up their schedules, ticket computers, and that's been an awesome
opportunity for us to meet with practically every student that
walk through the door to say, hey, are you ready
(11:21):
for the school year? So trying to be a cheerleader
and encourage them, so as the parents are that first tip,
stay positive and encourage the student about, you know, having
an awesome year. We're also in support of that messaging.
So we're telling the kids we're here. Just in case
you thought we weren't going to be here this school year,
We're here.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know where we are. Do you have any needs already?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
So we're already asking the question even before school starts,
and most of them had parents that accompanied them. So
we're asking the parents the same question, like do you
have everything? Do you have school supplies, school uniforms, clear backpacks?
Because that's a Lamar thing. How can we support that?
So just having that positive and seeing this trusting adult
(12:05):
face that they've had if they were returning students, and
then on.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
On Friday we'll have did it again.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
We'll have a freshman who've never seen us before, but
we'll be able to get them that same messaging to say, hey,
just in case you didn't know what resources are here
on campus, CIS is one of them, and let me
tell you how you can access it. So we're already
planning for that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
All those middle.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Schoolers coming to high school's say such a huge jump, right,
The school is a transition the schools. My impression is
that the middle schools are just smaller than the high
schools generation, especially at Lamar.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
We have on average about three thousand, one hundred thirty
two hundred students at Lamar.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It's a massive school, huge and it could.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Be intimidating for an eighth grader transitioning into high school. Yes,
so cis as far as myself. At Lamar, we have
a team of three, so I'm the student support manager.
We have Oliver Burbridge who is the student support specialist,
and Debonie Thiadina who is a mental health support specialist.
And one of our tasks that we put on ourselves
(13:15):
is we're going to position ourselves in the heavy populated
areas as the student comes to a sign, a smoke signal,
whatever it is that we need to say, do you need,
how do you get how do you navigate these hallways?
Let me look at your class schedule, because they're they
(13:35):
don't they are afraid. They have a little bit of
fear because it's nervousness and anxiety about looking at this
class schedule and it's like what is N one O two?
And because they don't know the building and so we're there.
Principal Grades is really good about making sure the administration
are also at these key points because again it's a
(13:55):
massive school, so you kind of need all hands on deck.
And that's what we've been And because I've been at
Lamar for the last three years and so this will
be my fourth school year and you know, I love it.
I'm passionate about the work that CIS does on campus,
and I look forward to every school year because it
just gives me an opportunity to support our students.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You're listening to Houston PA, Houston's Public Affairs show.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
My name is Laurent.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
My guests are here from Communities in Schools of Houston.
Chanelle Omiwade is the program director for Communities in Schools
of Houston and Adriann Williams is a student support manager
at Lamar High School. They're online and you can get
a lot of information that you need to get in
contact with Communities in school by their just going to
(14:42):
their website, Cishuston dot org, CIS Houston dot org. We've
already mentioned this. If your bus, if your school bus
schedule has changed and you're in limbo, they're gonna be
able to help you. All you have to do is
go to CIS Houston dot org. Also, hey, if you
have a motivated students, you can just send them to
one of the counselors in the school and say.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Y'all, we're CIS exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Somebody's out there that way. Take a left and a
right and go downstairs and then go back upstairs. Take
a left and you'll find it.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You will find it or not, we'll find you.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Like I said, going to school in France and America
is so completely different. You know, very small schools, huge campuses,
like they talk about campuses, and then you go outside
and there's a footballs field, a baseballs field, a track field.
It's awesome. It's absolutely awesome. It's what school should be like.
Lots of exercise. And by the way, that's one of
the tips that you have for parents, prioritizing the basics sleep, exercise,
(15:39):
and nutrition. Who wants to talk to me about that,
because I'm extremely interested in it. I was talking about
how breakfast is an important meal because your brain can't
be hungry if you want to learn. Also, it helps
not to have had a super heavy meal and try
to learn right afterwards because that puts you to sleep.
But what I'm saying is that the nutrition is important,
(16:00):
but obviously sleep is super important. And well, we have
a country that is having a health crisis because we
don't exercise enough. So how do you approach that.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Well, we have our managers on campus and they do
a great job of working with our students at whatever age,
and they actually go over.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Sleep hygiene, Like, so what's that?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So sleep hygiene is taken into account, what is your
bedtime routine?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Do you have lights on? Do you have your electronics going?
Is all that in the room with you? How do
we start weeding that out?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
So anybody who's kind of like super nervous that I'm
even talking about it, I promise that over time, paying
attention to it and finding out what your personal setup
should be.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's just helpful.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
And so the same way we have good habits and
our hygiene in life just to stay clean, we want
to get some good, wholesome complete sleep and kind of
going over their.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Routine to sleep in the dark. Yeah, in the dark
it could be a little cold.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, don't blast your face with an iPad or an
iPhone because it keeps you awake. Those blue light effects
is very real. Those screens shine a light into your
face literally, that will keep you awake. They do that
for force interrogation when they've got terrorists and they shine
a light in their face to keep them awake and
(17:30):
deprive them of sleep. And we're doing it voluntarily in
our bedrooms. It's ridiculous. If first of all, a physical
book is much better to put you asleep because the
refracting light on the page will tire your eyes and
compel you to close them. Yeah. Right, And people don't
always realize this, but if you have a kindle, it
(17:52):
actually works the exact same way because the light of
the kindle is not coming from the screen. The screen
of the kindle is actually an electronic page. It's flat
and it's it's it's like a piece of plastic. It
doesn't actually generate in a light you see at night
with a kindle because it has tiny little led lights
on the side of the screen and it shines light
(18:15):
onto the page, which essentially has the exact same effect
as a bed light shining light onto your book. So
you can use a kindle to read. Yes, I think you.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
May have had a session.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well I know, I read sixty seventy books a year,
and that's one of the best ways to go to sleep,
even if well, you know, if it's a real page
turner and a thriller, so you have to it's good
to have several books going at the same time. But no,
it's very real. If you want to go to sleep,
like study right, read your biology book before bed. No,
(18:53):
I'm kidding. Choose a subject that is more boring, like mathematics.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Goods.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Oh, I'm sorry that would be for me. Whatever works
for you, But no, I think that that's something that
we've sort of the phones crashed into our lives and
we're still evolving to live with them.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Also, proper nutrition, and so we're thinking about you know,
I guess when you're thinking students, you think proper nutrition
is like I'm going to go in and make sure breakfast.
Make sure breakfast is good, and that is good. We
want to get a great and healthy start. We actually
want to get more protein and less sugar yeap, so
that we can keep our brain going for a little
(19:32):
while throughout the day, being able to fuel your body.
And then on select campuses, we actually have in partnership
with the Houston Food Bank backpack Buddy, and so students
are able to go home with food for over the
weekend and things like that when they're not getting that
(19:55):
from day to day at school.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
As an easy tip that will work for a surprising
number of parents and students, if they love a coke
in the car on the way to school, try to
replace the coke with a sparkling water. I discovered this myself.
I didn't actually crave the Coca cola. I like the fizzes.
And when I discovered that all I wanted was to fizz,
(20:19):
I gave up Coca Cola overnight. Literally, I just I stopped.
And it wasn't an effort at all. It was like, oh,
wait a minute, I don't actually care for the flavor.
I just wanted to fizz in my mouth. And there's
a ton of products out there now they want to
sell you. They want to sell you a bunch of
fizzy water.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Try that.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It's really worth it, because I would say for the
vast majority of kids out there, it's just gonna work.
They'll be all it's cool. And also it becomes hip. Yes,
and if the friends are doing it, then hey, it's
good brainwashing.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well that's what's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
It's about right. We're essentially brainwashing kids to be good citizens,
and there's nothing wrong with it. We are human beings
are a monkey see monkey doo species. That's how we learn.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Did you bring up a good point water? Yeah, that's
the last.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Staying hydrated with a.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Little limit in it maybe, yeah, very good for your health.
Keep the st away. We didn't talk a whole lot
about the mental health and initiative that you have h
but what it basically amounts to is that if you
have a child who is unhappy in school for whatever reason,
you can actually help them directly. And again that's something
(21:28):
if the student is bashful about going to communities and
schools of Houston to ask for help directly, the parents
can do that. And again they can just go to
Cishuston dot org to kickstart that process, right And Chanelle,
you've already mentioned that if CIS is not in your
child's school, you'll have a list of the nearest.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, the nearest school. So we're we're only allowed to
service to students that we have in our school. Yeah,
but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't give you a
referral into the community.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
An Adrian, You and your staff or your colleagues, your
job is essentially to have an open door policy.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Absolutely, we have students who will come in understand the
services that we're able to provide them, and then they're
bringing friends to say, hey, you can come to CIS.
It's a trusted person. It's going to be kept confidential.
You can just talk to them about what you have
going on. So I am a licensed professional counselor, and
(22:33):
Miss Debunie Thianina is a licensed social worker and mister
Burbridge also has a mental health background and is a
retired educator, former principal And.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
So, oh wow, so you're just talking about.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh yeah, So we have a pretty great dynamic and
we allow the kids to choose who they feel most
comfortable with speaking with. They can speak to one of us,
all of us. It just depends on where they are.
And with our mental health initiative, we understand the challenges
of coming to school even for that student who has food,
(23:10):
has transportation, that doesn't negate the fact that there may
be some life experiences that creates stress, that creates anxiety.
It may not be those basic needs, but it may
be other things. And so they're able to come to
us and talk to us about that. Oh absolutely. So
we each have the way we're set up esthetically is
each of us have our own office. So Lamar has
(23:32):
been great about giving us that space and we're able
to bring that student in close the door and they're
able to talk to us and know that it stays
within the confined of the room, outside of the things
that are reportable. But for you know, the things that
they really want to share. We keep it there so
that we can then figure out, Okay, how do we
support you if you feel as though you're not doing
(23:55):
so well in this particular class, let me teach you
some advocacy skills. First, let's kind of decompress, you know,
release the stress and that anxiety.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Here's some water.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
You know, afriator in the office have a microwave, so
they need to heat up their lunch. I mean, just
simple things like that go a very long way with
the students if they know that, hey, I don't even
have to stand in this really long line to heat
up my lunch. I can go talk to Mss Williams
and we can sit in there. I can eat my
lunch and I can express what's going on. And then
(24:26):
we'll do some tips on how to decompress and settle down,
and then then talk about a game plan in terms
of okay, how do we help you do a little
bit better in that class? Do you feel like we
need to go talk with that teacher or your academic theme.
Do we need to send an email? And then we
also teach them and empower them to be able to
utilize these skills independently. Let's open up your laptop and
(24:49):
let's send an email, and we do it together so
that they feel confident. And then it teaches those life
skills after high school because we're trying to you know,
we want them to be successful in school, but we
also want them to be successful in life. And so
these basic skills in teaching them how to navigate systems
is instrumental in you know, getting them to that place
(25:10):
that we desire for them to be achieving in life.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Well, and especially for the younger pupils to have the
support of a grown up who has experienced a professional Uh.
They might have the right idea, but they might be
afraid that it's not the right idea. And if you
were to tell them, hey, let's write an email real quick,
it confirms their their initial instinct. And now that you
have the authority the backup, you're basically you're basically like
(25:35):
Rambo backing them up.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Don't worry, you don't don't worry your bad almost like
I just thought i'd throw that out there since it's
my name.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
I want to say also that Lamar is a unique
setup and that they have three three but most of
our most of our sites have won.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
And so what we do.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
If if the person hired is not a licensed individual,
We partner with well First, we work within our own organization.
We have a mobile mental health team and that's a
team of I don't know the count right now, but
there's a team of a few individuals and they're able
(26:24):
to go to each to different schools that we have
and provide services on campus.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Like Lucy sets up shop and yes, you can think
just like that, right, and she's giving a friend just
come on in private.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Lucy charges your opinion, We're not charging anything. We're not
charging you anything. And this is huge because we do
work with all students in all parents, and there is
a whole section of our fantastic workers in late in
(27:00):
Houston where if you don't go to work, you don't
get paid and I may not be able to take
off to take you to counseling. Well CIS has brought
it into the building that we can still see about
your child's mental wellness without affecting you more negatively economically, right, yeah,
(27:21):
And so it's a huge service that we can bring
that right on end, there's like I said, one hundred
and sixty three campuses, so our team is not able
to go to each one of those. So what we've
done is partner with the Pelchin, partner with Family Services,
partner with Nick Finnigan, and get extra therapists that can
(27:43):
come on campus to provide this service instead of them
going going away from school that means you're not in class.
You know, there's time in traffic to go. More than
likely you're not coming back for the rest of that day.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Right Yeah, And so with this you can.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
With our help, we help coordinate that that it's a
part of your day. We know on what day you
need this support. We have it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It's in the schedule. We can get you in.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
It doesn't disrupt teachers, it doesn't disrupt the administration.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
They can come in, get what they need and go
back to class and they have gained all of those
teaching minutes. Right, teachers are able to teach those kids
because they are there and they're not away.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Right is communities and schools funded by donations and grants
from the community. You'll get some of our tax dollars too, though, right,
we do, and that we are y'all should get more. Yes,
say it loud, Yeah, this is where our tax dollars
should do. Yes, those kids are the most precious commodity.
(28:54):
They're the most precious resource we have. They're actually, biologically speaking,
they're the only responsibility we have. Everything else is superfluous.
And if the audience is like me and they're hearing
that Lamar High School has three counselors, which sounds not enough,
and then most schools have only one, and then there's
a bunch of schools that have zero, then we should
(29:15):
be able to grow those services by donating to communities
and schools that it seems like y'all need, We need
more of you. Yes, and we can also help to
fund the partner organizations like the Pelchin and help them
grow that. I mentioned this already in the show. We
like the political will to make this happen, but we
(29:35):
have the money. We have all these rich corporations who
are constantly looking at where they should put their money
to donate.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
They donate.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
They donate billions of dollars per year altogether. You can
go to communities and schools online. They're at CI shuston
dot or rg CI shuston dot or org. And as usual,
if you have any questions related to Houston, PA. You
can just send me an email Texan from France at
gmail dot com. Texan from France at gmail dot com.
(30:07):
You'll get an answer, because I will answer personally. My
name is Laurent I am the Texan from France and
this has been Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, Houston
Strong
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