leadership in high schools

Dr. Mansoor Kazi, University of Buffalo, Professor of Social Work visited the Hewes Center today to follow up on the roll out plan to incorporate two social worker volunteer interns into the school setting this Fall 2009 school year.  He was joined by the administrative intern of Chautauqua Tapestry, Kevin Davenport, Alternative Education Supervisor and myself,  as we planned for the following 

• The adoption of a school defined template that will be used to track mental health amongst students grades Kindergarten through 12+ in the school setting using the following indicators – attendance, school grades, discipline etc.  Data entry will be undertaken by the social worker interns who will be monitored by three counselors at the Hewes Center and who will be mentored by a Yvonne Bisel, MSW a social worker based at our Chautauqua Lake BOCES programs. 

The scope of this study will only involve the Hewes Center student populations within Alternative and Special Education.   In the month of September, 2009 Dr. Kazi will return to the Hewes Center together with his research team and representatives from the Office of Mental Health who are the lead grant writers of this project to speak to elementary, middle and high school team members about the study and the role of the social work interns at thr Hewes Center this year. 

Other schools in Chautauqua County that are participating in this study include Jamestown Public, Dunkirk City and the Gustavus Adolphus Learning Center.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 1PM Dr. Kazi, Prof. School of Social Work, Univ of Buffalo will be visiting the Hewes Center to go over details of the the plan to initiatiate oversight of mental health collection of data amongst a set population – students K-12.  We will be joined in this visit by Danielle O’Connor, Director of Instructional Programs, Erie 2 BOCES, the school nurse, a counselor, a representative teacher and myself.  This visit will be followed up by interviews conducted in early June that will be set up by the BOCES for two interns that have shown interest in doing work on behalf of students, their families, schools and Chautauqua county.  The work accomplished by these interns in collaboration with our counselors and teachers will go toward informing our discipline and outreach practices at the Hewes Center as well as contribute to the body of work being produced by the Tapestry project at other schools and local community sites.