Link Crew

This week, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Malicke, and I all went out to North Farmington High School to hear a presentation about Link Crew. Link Crew is a freshman transition program that has been successfully implemented throughout the country. Over 1.7 million students are involved in this program this year. Here is the link for the informational site about Link Crew: The presentation was probably one of the more intersting things I ever heard. The teacher in charge of this crew at NFHS, Kevin Ozar, was so energetic and passionate about Link Crew that his thoughts and feelings transferred over to me. He sold this program so well. It is a program that will positively impact every single one of our students within the next four years. The only downside to this program is the cost, as I have mentioned before. However, after breaking it down with Mr. Malicke, we figured that it would basically be equivalent to spending $3.75 per student to improve their entire high school career. Money well spent if you ask me. We have also decided that Mr. Malicke will be taking the lead on this program. A better faculty representative could not have been chosen. Mr. Malicke is the epitome of a teacher who is in this business for all the right reasons. He has a great compassion for the students here and that will help lead to the success of this program here. The next step is a meeting next Tuesday with Mr. Stevens, Mr. Malicke, and Mr. Shannon to determine our next step. We need to figure out how to present this to the board and how to get funding for the project. That could prove to be difficult, but anything worthwhile usually is. Until next time...

My Pitch

So I pitched my idea to Mr. Stevens on Monday. Mr. Malicke came with me because he is very interested in this project as well. We spoke about the need for a freshman transition program here at BHS. It turns out that Mr. Stevens helped to bring a program like this to Romeo High School when he was the AP there. It is called "The Link Crew." He mentioned how this program was a great success and that it is something we should at least look at to see if it would work for us here.

I have looked into "The Link Crew" and found that it sounds like an awesome program. The only downside to it is that it will cost over $2,000 to train each staff member. We believe that we will need at least two staff members to run this program so we are looking at a bill of over $4,000. That is a lot of cash. On the website for this program, they have a page dedicated to how to raise funds for these costs. They suggest anything from seeking grants (hoping we don't have to do that because it is a huge process) to seeing if there are organizations within the school that would consider funding this program. Can you hear me Student Council?
Mr. Malicke and I also believe that our union may be able to donate some money towards this cause.

Our next step is for Mr. Stevens, Mr. Malicke, and myself to attend an informational meeting on October 15th at North Farmington High School. We will have a better idea if this truly is the program we want to pursue after that date.