Are local community agencies adequately involved in your school district's operations?

More than three quarters of the teachers polled felt that there was not adequate involvement in school district operations from local community agencies. The area encompassed within a school district can range in size and in some more rural locations, the physical area can be quite extensive. In either case it is important to have local community support where ever possible.

It takes a village to raise a child. Isn't that what the old proverb says? It's a very quaint little saying with a kernel of truth at its core. Parents and teachers do their very best to provide the appropriate care and education that children need. By serving as positive role models, teachers provide important examples to live by. Sometimes this isn't enough.

Students need to see and hear from parties outside their regular sphere of influence and experience as much as possible in order to supplement what they receive at home and school. One example of local agencies supporting schools is that of police liaison officers. Police officer visits to school to discuss bullying, drugs and cyber safety can have an immense impact on students.

Some police officers are involved in computer monitoring, searching for pedophiles that are active online. The officers have been known to act in the same manner as the criminal and then present their findings to students, usually those in secondary schools. The dangers of social media hits home when a big, burly police officer tells you that his online name is Beth and 30 of the students in the assembly have accepted him as their Facebook friend! In many cases, one or more of the students have tried to arrange a date with him. If this doesn't warn students of the dangers then nothing else will.

Community involvement is vital in providing extra support for students, teachers and school districts. It is discouraging to know that the majority of teachers feel the support level is not adequate to provide this extra help. The immediate beneficiaries of this type of involvement are the students, but society as a whole benefits as well. If it takes a village to raise a child, ultimately the village benefits, and it's time this message was embraced.