Hazelwood School District Gets Help from the Clergy

Tutors and volunteers are greatly needed in many sectors of every community. When it comes to quality people to fill these voids in the education system, being selective is important to weed out unsavory characters from being around students.

So it should come to no surprise that when the (HSD) did some out-of-the-box thinking on how to get the community more involved, it turned to a corner of the community that is looked upon to uphold positive morals and values: the church.

"While our first amendment dictates the separation of church and state, there are still very many legal ways that churches and schools can form partnerships," said Diana Gulotta, HSD assistant superintendent for communications. "There's certainly no shortage of need in our schools."

Creating an Alliance

When you walk into the HSD administration building board room, two frames hang on the right wall with the district's mission and vision statements. One of the district's goals listed in its district accountability plan is this:

"The Hazelwood School District, the community and all families will support the learning of all children."

"Because of the preexisting relationships with students, parents and educators the church family can be a natural place for our schools to seek support," Gulotta said. "In addition, church members can exercise their faith through volunteering or helping our schools."

The purpose of the partnership is not for churches to necessarily spread their views on students but to be an added value and positive resource for the school community, and thus the HSD Clergy Alliance was created.

Students Are the Focus

Dr. Freddy J. Clark, reverend at in Florissant appeared at the Feb. 7 board of education meeting and discussed the role he sees his church playing in the school district as part of the clergy alliance. HSD has had two meetings with Shalom Church City of Peace to develop a partnership with a few nearby schools.

"Our involvement will really be about our kids," Clark said. "My concerns are that our kids do well as they move on from elementary school to high school.

Clark said he was interested in looking at a partnership also between his church's child development center and HSD's early childhood program.

"I appreciated the partnership we are developing. I love it and I'm invested in it," he said. "We will do no mentoring without parental involvement."

Connecting with the Community

HSD invited representatives of all of churches/religious institutions located within HSD to two breakfasts to share information and ask for feedback. This accounted for more than 85 religious institutions. From those meetings, a subcommittee was formed. It has held one meeting, and coordinated needs-assessment survey for our all HSD schools.

has built a relationship with and including:

• Opportunities for students to gain community service hours, which are required for graduation
• Church sponsorship of the varsity football team: every home game, Gulotta said the church prepares a breakfast and there's a motivational speech and prayer
• Student parking on the church campus adjacent to the high school
• Facility space-sharing
• Reading to elementary students

During the holidays, adopted a family through the Noel Project.

Christ the King United Church of Christ, as well as Bethany Peace United Church of Christ donated school supplies to Twillman Elementary School.

Hazelwood East Middle School (HEMS) is actively working with Chapel of the Cross, Bethany Peace United Church of Christ and the New Life Empowerment Center. Chapel of the Cross assists with tutoring through the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club program, and parishioners from Bethany Peace donated money for school supplies. New Life Empowerment Center has expressed interest in adopting HEMS to provide tutoring and work with school families.

HSD is currently working with I HEART NORTH COUNTY to create a partnership on the .

It's About Giving and Receiving

and Bethel-Providence Christian Church in Florissant work together as well.

In fact, not only do church members volunteer during lunch, the church is also helping students give back to those in need, something Matt Phillips, the school's principal said has been a great achievement.

"One of Brown's big focuses this year was community engagement and how to get churches in the community to work with us," he said.

Brown joined the Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project. It's an organization dedicated to building five libraries throughout Africa by the end of 2015. Phillips said he reached out to Pennington to help raise funds and donate books to one of the libraries that have been built in Ghana but has no books, and it let to a deeper vision.

Reverend Charles Pennington, the church's leader, also appeared at the Feb. 7 meeting to discuss the vision and what this partnership means to him.

"I started going to a few of the pastors in this community to see what we could do together and how we could help this community become better," Pennington said. "I talked to Pastor Steve at First Christian, and Pastor Jim at and we all had the same mindset.

"If we can get in the schools and if (HSD) would allow us into the schools, we can begin to touch some of the students in the schools and begin to change their mindset."

Not only are Brown students allowed to use the church for celebrations, the church has provided supplies to students that couldn't afford them and also mentor young males and troubled students in the schools. Pennington noted that mentoring and mediation occurs only if the parents approval is attained.