Beaufort Co. School District celebrates Purple Star Distinction during Military Appreciation Month
When Beaufort Co. School District Superintendent Frank Rodriguez called Director of School Counseling Geri Henderson and said he wanted to reach Military Purple Star Distinction, she said she could make it happen.
And she did.
The district was recognized by the South Carolina Department of Education with the Military Purple Star Distinction in a ceremony on Thursday.
“When you’re given a directive from your supervisor, you just make it happen,” Henderson said.
The Purple Star Distinction, an initiative from the Military Child Education Coalition, aims to advocate for and support the children of active duty service members as they transition to a new school after a parent’s relocation for duty.
“It’s our job to support those students whose parents are on the front lines protecting and defending our freedom every day,” Henderson said.
Henderson, who is a retired U.S. Marine, said students moving from place to place face certain challenges. The program aims to serve students by providing them with a support system to offset the emotional struggles that switching schools presents and by helping them transfer credits from their previous schools.
“Transitioning from school to school is difficult enough as it is,” Rodriguez said. “We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them and serve them, because they spend all their life serving us.”
Program at work
And the program is already doing that. The mother of a third-grader transferring from a school in California to one in the Beaufort County School District was told that her son would be held back because he was transferring too late in the school year, according to Henderson.
The school was wrong, she said, because California is a part of the Military Interstate Compact Agreement, an agreement developed by the Department of Defense and the National Center for Interstate Compacts that states the education of military children cannot be impeded by a school system’s bureaucratic practices.
“It’s important for educators to be aware also that they can properly and adequately support military students who face unique challenges,” Henderson said.
There are 80 public school districts in South Carolina, and only nine are Purple Star Districts, according to Henderson. South Carolina is one of only 11 states that has a Purple Star District initiative.
Marine Corps Sgt. Rosella Robinson, a benefits specialist with the district, said programs like this weren’t around when she and her husband were raising their children.
“We had JROTC functions but nothing like this,” Robinson said. “ Kids coming in (from Department of Defense) schools can feel isolated, so this will help families feel at ease with the transition to high school.”
Rodriguez said the program is a way to give back to families who give so much.
“I have a tremendous appreciation of what they do to keep our country safe to protect our freedoms, and it is our duty to support their families,” he said.
