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Board approves Boys and Girls Club pilot as alternative to suspension, will serve middle- and high-school students
Summary
School City of Mishawaka will partner with the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Corridor to pilot the FAIR Family Center for Leadership as in-district support: a half-day middle-school intervention and a high-school alternative to suspension/expulsion with transportation and on-site academic, social and emotional services.
The School City of Mishawaka Board of School Trustees approved a partnership June 11 with the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Corridor to pilot the FAIR Family Center for Leadership, a program designed to provide academic, social and emotional supports for students identified by the district.
"Our vision for this is to create a transformative space where struggling students and tweens... can grow academically, socially, and emotionally," said Dwayne Wilson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Indiana Corridor, describing the FAIR Family Center concept during the board presentation.
Under the pilot, the district and the Boys and Girls Club will co-create and operate programming for two targeted populations: an identified cohort of roughly 12 middle-school students from John Young Middle School on a half-day schedule and high-school students from Mishawaka High School who can participate as an alternative to suspension or expulsion. The Boys and Girls Club said it will provide transportation from the school to its facility (the organization identified the site as the former Ivy Tech administrative building on Sample Street), supervise lunches when students remain at the center, and operate an MOU with the district.
Program staffing proposed in the presentation includes a staff psychologist to oversee services, a certified teacher for academics, youth development instructors for emotional and academic support, a case manager who follows students across the program period, and licensed social workers to assist students and families.
Board members asked whether participation would be voluntary or mandated. Dwayne Wilson described the program as part of the districttoolbox and said the expulsion examiner could strongly recommend or require completion as a step in a return-to-school pathway. The program timeline discussed is flexible with "rolling entry" and staff said a typical intervention window under consideration is about 10 weeks, with longer placements possible to match the length of suspension or expulsion.
The board moved, seconded and approved the partnership. Administrators and Boys and Girls Club staff said they will finalize the MOU, transportation and staffing details and return to the board with implementation specifics as the pilot launches.
