We are happy to announce that the 2016 grant award for Attendance and/or Tardiness goes to…
Community Truancy Board
Congratulations!
The Community Truancy Board, staffed by the Bellevue School District, is the third recipient of the $5,000 grant to advance the mission of Eastside Pathways and honor Bill Henningsgaard’s memory.
Aware that regular attendance leads to students learning at their highest levels and being successful overall, in 2016, Eastside Pathways focused on funding a program that supports Eastside Pathways’ initiative to increase attendance and/or being in school on time for students of all ages.
Several community partners are also working on this initiative but the Community Truancy Board was selected because it focuses on “a very specific, targeted population of youth and the Community Truancy Board is working to ameliorate the causes of truancy. The community volunteer panel is partially made up of Eastside Pathways partners and exemplifies the collective impact model with different partners working together for a common goal,” said Stephanie Cherrington, executive director of Eastside Pathways.
The Community Truancy Board seeks to address the problem of truancy through the collaboration of school, court and community resource providers. Community volunteers serve on panels that interview students and their parents in an effort to identify reasons for the student’s failure to attend school. The board makes recommendations to the students, their parents and the school district intended to improve the student’s attendance record and support the youth in making such a change. Sometimes the student and family are unable to follow up on recommendations due to a lack of funds. The Community Truancy Board intends to use the grant money to assist students and families in need to carry out the recommendations set by the Community Truancy Board.
“This grant allows the Community Truancy Board to go beyond making recommendations. We are happy to have the opportunity to provide the families that we work with feasible options to be successful in overcoming the roadblocks they have,” said Glenn Hasslinger, supervisor of pupil management and lead of the Community Truancy Board at Bellevue School District.
The Bill Henningsgaard Fund for Children was established to honor Bill Henningsgaard’s commitment to children and belief in the power of collective impact. Bill launched Eastside Pathways when he saw the challenges faced by low-income, immigrant, non-English speaking, and children with special needs in Bellevue. He felt that in our resource-rich community, failing even one child was unacceptable. The goal is to ensure that the funds are leveraged, allocated to different partners each year, and help Eastside Pathways’ achieve its shared goals of providing all students with the opportunity to succeed in school and in life.
The next grant will be available February 2017 and will focus on transitions for grades 8-9 and 12-college.