Superintendent Jake McCandless informed the School Committee last week that a new part-time position would focus on connecting with the city's youth.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A newly created position meant to improve the school district's cultural competency and underaddressed diversity issues will have a big impact on school attendance rates, according to Superintendent of Schools Jason "Jake" McCandless.

McCandless told the School Committee at last week's meeting that he has worked with Mayor Daniel Bianchi to hammer out an agreement to establish a year-round, part time position to address social and other aspects of Pittsfield schools, such as bullying, that may be deterring some students from attending as regularly as needed to succeed academically.

"One of the most sure-fire ways to improve student achievement, and to improve school district achievement, is to have as close to as possible, every kid in school every day," said McCandless.  

"That's one of the commonalities of students that aren't performing well," the superintendent added. "They aren't here often."

The School Department has budgeted $25,000 for the position, which will be supplemented by Bianchi with some additional funds from the city side, though still a large reduction from an earlier proposal from McCandless last year that called for $100,000 to deal with the perceived cultural competency issues in the district.

The new liaison will also share some responsibilities on the city side of local government, which were not made clear, though McCandless envisioned "the lion's share" of the new hire's time will be spent on the schools.

"There's bullying pieces, there's mentoring pieces, there's pieces that are recruitment and networking pieces," the superintendent told the School Committee. "We need someone who can help us with all of that.

"I happen to think it's an incredibly timely opportunity for us to take this on, this position," he added, alluding to a number of recent community meetings organized in the wake of a youth-involved shooting a few weeks ago.

The superintendent said the position would be year round because much of the work would involve connecting youth to summer programs and positive opportunities. It may also have an impact in affecting some of the circumstances that lead to students exercising school choice out of the district.

"It's very wide in scope," commented Chairwoman Katherine Yon.

"This can help us hit a lot of different targets that we're looking to hit a mark on," agreed McCandless.

The School Committee accepted a draft description of the position description, and will vote on a final version at it's October meeting, with the Superintendent hopeful that a new hire could be in the job in November.

• Most Read

• Most Comments

• All News

• Blogroll

• Photos