Wilmington City Schools Board of Education President Steve Murphy accepts an Excellent banner from Ohio Board of Education member Jane Sonenshein in honor of the district earning an excellent status in the statewide report card ratings. (News Journal photo/Gary Huffenberger)
This week Wilmington City Schools will send home with each student a 10-page Community Resource Guide for Families as a tool for residents to know where to turn if they have needs as money gets tighter in the local economy.
The guide tells how to contact agencies or organizations that can help in areas such as clothing, car repairs, child care, counseling, child protection — and those are only the ones listed that start with “C”.
“Kids are starting to feel the pinch,” Jennifer Jones, the district’s communications staffer, told the school board Monday evening.
Although there’s a downturn in the overall economy, the main impetus for compiling a resource guide is the anticipated loss of thousands of jobs at the DHL Air Park — and therefore the loss of incomes and health insurance coverage.
Students have told teachers they didn’t have supper the night before or their family doesn’t know where they will live, Jones reported.
So the school district, working with the local ministerial association and Joan Burge of Clinton County Job & Family Services, compiled the guide.
Superintendent Ron Sexton said the community has been great to the schools and the schools need to be great in return toward the community.
The Wilmington High School English Department will help with resumes, Sexton said. Mock job interviews will be conducted, and the Vocational Agriculture Department has started to look into community gardens, perhaps two or three of them around Clinton County, the superintendent added.
“The school district needs to be a center of giving back until residents are able to get back on their feet,” Sexton said during the meeting.
On the back of the resource guide, Sexton wrote a note. In it he says, “Please feel free to contact any administrator, teacher, aide, secretary or bus driver if your children are in need.”
He adds, “Our district can’t solve all of the problems — but you can bet we’ll be here for you. You’ll get through this. We’ll get though this. We’ll do it together.”
In other school board news, Ohio Board of Education member Jane Sonenshein presented an Excellent banner to the district for receiving an excellent rating on the most recent district-wide report card.
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Election 2010
