BCEP: volunteers improving military children’s education

  • Published
  • By Carla Pampe
  • Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs
For children in military families, one of the more difficult challenges can be the many changes of schools that often come with military life. For children at Barksdale Air Force Base, there is an organization designed to help make that transition a little easier - the Barksdale Community Education Partnership, or BCEP.

"The BCEP is an organization of professionals somehow related to the field of education who got together because of a crisis we had with one of the schools, to see what we could do about it," said Vaughn Grace, one of the founding members of the BCEP. "As we worked on that particular problem, we realized that there were more things we could do in order to help with the special problems that are associated with being a military child--as you try to get an education as your parent goes from base to base to base, as they get deployed and as they come back."

The BCEP is an all-volunteer organization, mainly spouses of active-duty members, who have children in the Caddo and Bossier-Parish school systems, as well as those who home school their children.

According to Reginald Coles, Barksdale AFB school liaison officer, one of the biggest contributions of the BCEP since its inception has been lobbying the Louisiana state legislature to pass the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children in July of 2009. So far, nearly 30 states have signed the Compact.

"Based upon my understanding from talking with an attorney from the Board of Education, this Compact law is a waiver for the local school districts to waive requirements that, in the past, have been imposed upon our children because of local school rules," Mr. Coles said.

Mrs. Grace said the Compact allows schools some flexibility when dealing with military children who have moved from school to school. She gave the example of children moving from state-to-state having to re-prove and re-document classes they have already taken, or having items deleted from transcripts, as her daughter did.

"Our daughter had National Honor Society deleted from her transcript because she had been inducted into the NHS as a sophomore, and when we moved to Illinois, Illinois did not recognize that," she said. "(Since) it was her senior year, she did not have to rectify it, because you had to be there nine months to even be nominated and in nine months she graduated.

"This Compact basically makes it law for there to be some common sense applied to moving children about the way the military does when it comes to their transcripts, their records, the classes they take, the teachers they get and all manner of other things," Mrs. Grace said.

Col. Rob Huber, 2d Mission Support Group commander, said with the enactment of the Compact, local school districts in Caddo and Bossier Parishes have been given even greater authority to accommodate the unique needs of military children, particularly in regards to things like graduation requirements, gifted programs, sports and participation in extracurricular programs.

"Bossier Parish School District and Caddo Parish School District as well as the local private schools have been very open and engaged with Barksdale Air Force Base leadership, and particularly our recently established School Liaison Officer," the colonel said. "[He] has been welcomed into all of the schools for tours and familiarization so he can best provide information to our incoming families."

In addition, as the Mission Support Group commander, Colonel Huber said he was invited to participate on the community advisory panel during the selection of the Bossier Parish School Superintendent.

"The members of the Board of Education are extremely interested in doing what they can to support Barksdale Air Force Base families," he said.

However, it is not only up to the school districts to make the effort, Colonel Huber said. It must be a true partnership between the schools and military families.

"The best way we can help as a military community is for parents to get involved in our children's schools as much as they can, through either one time opportunities to chaperone trips or provide teacher thanks and recognition, or more long-term support through tutoring or assistance with extracurricular programs," he said. "Barksdale children make up only a very small percentage of the children in the very large local school districts. But the local community is extremely supportive of the military and happy to have us and our children in their schools."

Mr. Coles feels that the Barksdale Community Education Partnership has made great strides in strengthening the relationship between the local school districts and the military community at Barksdale.

"They are working within the confines that they have and trying to look out for dependants, and be good citizens and work with a system that we have never really worked with before at this level," Mr. Coles said. "They meet and collaborate on how to affect change. If they can't help the children of today, then they will try to help the children of tomorrow to have a safe and academically rigorous educational experience here at Barksdale."