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Gen. Smallwood Full Service Community School

General Smallwood Middle Schoolis working to address the many challenges that young people face in a rapidly changing/suburban rural area. Academically, the school is focusing on reading across the content to improve student performance. To improve school climate a new behavior management program focusing on positive reinforcement has been implemented.

Tri-County Youth Services, Inc. is the lead community based organization collaborating with General Smallwood Middle School in developing a full-service community school. The partnership is addressing needs identified by the community, top among them safe, educationally rich environments for youth before and after school, on weekends and during the summer months.

Accomplishments. Since the full-service community school started at Smallwood, the school has been recognized by the district for its gains in attendance and homework completion.

The following programs and services have been built around the school's instructional core: extended day activities, summer programs, mental health services for students and their families, outreach to parents and outreach to community.

After-school activities. Students attend homework club, academic, social skills and recreational activities four days a week after school.

Summer camp. The full-service community school collaborates with the Department of Community Services to offer summer activities for students. The full-service community school was the first to offer a summer camp for young teens in the County.

Attendance Incentives. The full-service community school hosts dances for students who miss less than three days of school each semester. The dances are credited with improving Smallwood's attendance rate.

School Day Activities: Mental Health Counseling. The lead agency, Tri-County Youth Services Bureau, runs behavior management groups for approximately 8 students at a time and provides individual student and family counseling

Family and Community Involvement. The full-service community school at Smallwood offers recreational activities for parents in the evening and access to its computer library after school. A parent partner contacts parents and families referred to the program--via telephone, home visits and in school-- to encourage their participation, develops rapport with families in order to facilitate healthy communication and interaction within the family unit, assists parents in identifying family strengths, needs and goals and to remove barriers to reaching those goals, communicates with school personnel to achieve family goals, refers families to outside resources as appropriate including, but not limited to outpatient counseling, housing, legal aid and other community resources and serves as a liaison between families and other agencies.

Collaborations. The full-service community school has brought valuable resources to the school. Project Talent Search from the University of Southern Maryland provides tutoring and exposes the students to education beyond high school.

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation provides funding, technical assistance and process and outcomes evaluations of the full-service school to the Smallwood partnership.

General Smallwood has seen initial improvement as a result of the full-service community school initiative: increased homework completion, better attendance, and improved behavior and academic performance.

Mr. Charles Gibson
Site Director

Cynthia Warren
Principal
Contact Person: Mr. Charles Gibson (301) 743-5422