Bellevue highlights military-connected supports; Anchored for Life program expands to second school
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Summary
As part of its strategic plan, Bellevue Public Schools presented programs supporting military-connected students, including a locally embedded Military and Family Life Counselor and the Anchored for Life program at two elementary schools, describing tours, kits and resiliency activities.
Bellevue Public Schools presented an update Oct. 6 on Strategic Plan Priority 4 — engaging the community — that highlighted services for military-connected students and staff and the district's partnership with Offutt Air Force Base.
District presenters described the Department of the Air Force School Liaison Program at Offutt, the district’s Military and Family Life Counselor (MFLAC) embedded at Peter Starkey Elementary School, and local implementation of the Anchored for Life program. Staff said the liaison program supports hundreds of schools in Nebraska and Iowa and that the Anchored for Life program is fully funded by the U.S. military.
Why this matters: Bellevue has a sizable population of military-connected families; the district emphasized supports to ease transitions, deployments and other challenges that affect academic and social-emotional adjustment.
Program details presented to the board: - School liaison partnership: staff said Tina Lieberman and Jennifer Miller serve as managers for the Offutt Air Force Base School Liaison Program, which supports hundreds of schools and thousands of students regionally. - MFLAC and school placement: Bonnie Levitt serves as the district’s MFLAC and is embedded at Peter Starkey Elementary School; presenters said Peter Starkey’s student body is approximately 82% military-connected. - Anchored for Life: Peter Starkey is in its second year of implementation and Leonard Lawrence has begun its first year. The Anchored for Life team provides new-student tours, assigns student "crew" members to support newcomers, distributes supportive kits (welcome, deployment, reunification, farewell, divorce, grief/loss), conducts service projects and runs resiliency-focused classroom lessons (pod squads). - Kit distribution and outreach: presenters said the team distributed 113 kits last year; so far this year (since after Labor Day) the team had distributed 13 kits. Planned service projects include a fundraiser for a local animal shelter.
During the presentation school staff described how they learn about family events (conferences, parent communications, disenrollment paperwork when families PCS) and how advisers and student leaders help integrate new students. The district said it will continue collaborating with Offutt’s liaison program and use federal and military-funded resources where available.
No formal board action was required at the presentation; the item was informational.