Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SchoolsPlus trying to expand to other South Shore Schools


Scott Patterson
Bridgewater town council is writing a letter of support to the NDP government to try and sway some South Shore Schools to gain much needed programming. Council heard during their January 9th meeting all about kids at risk at Park View, Bridgewater and New Germany High and their feeder schools. The Chair of SchoolsPlus service, Scott Patterson, says there were 692 suspensions last year out of 4,554 students at those schools. Patterson says SchoolsPlus could influence kids to change the way they think.
"What if we could figure out a way to establish relationships with them, build a bridge with them, match them up with programming developers, get some programming in to help them? What if we had support right in the schools? What if we could do that? Empower these kids to be all they can be."
The SchoolsPlus program costs $150-thousand to incorporate into the schools. The NDP government is expected to award four more schools with SchoolsPlus this spring. Six schools in Eastern-Lunenburg County are involved in South Shore SchoolsPlus including Chester Area Middle School, New Ross Consolidated and Forest Heights Community School.