Saturday, April 29, 2000
Schools get gift: an angel
When you work in Cincinnati Public Schools, it gets harder and harder to dream.
Reality is always in your face. Buildings crumble. Budget cuts loom. Staffs get smaller. Children's needs get larger.
If they could dream, however — if for one year Cincinnati educators could have what they see in wealthier school districts — many would simply ask for someone to listen to their children.
They would ask for a safe place where children could let out their anger, and learn to talk rather than fight. A place where they could ask important questions about their lives, like why mom and dad are divorcing, or even how they're supposed to get all this homework finished every night. Someone to listen.
But in a district ravaged by cuts and stripped down to basic services, that's about as farfetched a dream as you can get.
That is, until three years ago at North Avondale Montessori School.
North Avondale has a powerful friend. In 1997, its Partner in Education, Bethesda Hospital, came knocking with an unbelievable gift — a free health-care service, tailored to North Avondale's needs and funded by Bethesda Foundation.
The staff decided quickly: Give us a counselor.
Not someone to do testing, evaluation, placement — necessary as those things may be. The teachers wanted someone who could listen to children, shape their behavior, concentrate on their emotional well-being.
In a sweeping act of generosity, the Bethesda Foundation sent over behavioral health specialist Gwyn Griffiths. North Avondale Principal Mitza Costantini calls her, “a blessing, a gift, an angel.”
An angel with an office. An angel who is there from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, month after month and year after year. An angel amazingly — miraculously — free of red tape.
“Because the program is funded by the Bethesda Foundation, we can provide psychological services as needed,” says program director Dr. Stephen P. Fritsch, a psychologist at TriHealth Behavioral Health Services, which provides the service. “Children don't have to be diagnosed, processed and classified to be served.”
So when kindergartners start to school at North Avondale, Mrs. Griffiths teaches them about cooperation and fairness. Third-graders may discuss friendship, and fifth-graders, anger management. In small groups, students work on self-control, stress, time-management, parental divorce.
In a district where most elementary schools have no counselor and a psychologist only one day each week, North Avondale students have access to one-on-one counseling sessions. Parents come in for help with family concerns, such as communication. Teachers stop by for tips on dealing with behavior.
“People are much more geared toward prevention and catching problems early,” says Mrs. Griffiths. “We're seeing children who would have never been identified for help before.”
The result? Mrs. Costantini says the school has seen a decline in discipline problems, better relationships between students, and a renewed focus on academics.
Bethesda Foundation has since extended the service to Bond Hill Academy and partially funds a program at Parham Elementary.
Cincinnati Public Schools have never needed friends more. The Bethesda Foundation and TriHealth Behavioral Health Services have been two very good ones.
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202, or e-mail her at krista_ramsey@hotmail.com.
