"If we have the collective will, we can take our community to the next level. We can take our school system to the next level," Roy Belson, the superintendent of Medford Public Schools, told an audience on Sunday, Mar. 13.
Belson spoke that evening about his Homefront Initiative at the Marsha Caron Theater of Medford High School. The Initiative is designed to address and correct many problems plaguing students in the Medford public school system, including poor nutrition, low attendance, and weak study skills.
Throughout his discussion, Belson returned to the importance of health. Fifty percent of children, he said, are not active on a regular basis.
This trend, he said, is particularly relevant in Medford schools, where 47 percent of students are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.
According to Belson, such poor physical fitness has academic as well as personal implications.
"Students with the highest fitness scores had the highest test scores," he said.
He also spoke of the problem of sleep deprivation, which affects a large number of students.
"The loss of deep sleep... results in irritability, anxiety, depression, and reduced concentration," he said.
Belson also addressed substance abuse. He said that far too many children have alcohol and drug problems.
"Youth - our youth - misuse their own prescription medications," he said.
Belson also addressed problems in the classroom, including poor attendance. On average, Medford students miss about 11 days of school per year. According to Belson, taxpayers waste about $50 per student per missed day.
He attributed the problem to students' tendencies to miss school for vacations or sporting events. "They have some other event that they have decided is more important than school," he said.
Poor attendance, he stressed, reduces achievement. "Regular attendance results in better performance," he said.
Belson also cited was a lack of concern about homework as a problem. Belson said that too often, parents are doing their children's homework.
"Too many parents do the assignment for the kids...[When] a third-grader quotes Shakespeare, it [becomes] a little dicey," he joked.
In a question-and-answer session following Belson's speech, many parents expressed concern about their involvement in fulfilling the initiative's goals. Many requested additional forums to discuss pertinent issues and expanded opportunities for volunteer work.
Belson responded that there needs to be an effective balance between the roles of the schools and of the parents, emphasizing that connections among parents are critical.
"We want people to know each other," he said. Connections help parents to "develop those aspects of parenting they might otherwise fall short on."
He emphasized that the Initiative is all about connections and awareness. "We need to get to people. We need to penetrate," he said.
Reactions to the event were mostly positive. According to Jean Barry, the principal of Columbus Elementary School in Medford, the Initiative reinforces many goals already in place at the elementary school level.
"Some of what he has said, my parents have already expressed interest in," she said.
Barry also said that the school has made an effort to promote workouts and healthy snacks, among other improvements, to help with many of the problems Belson addressed.
"Now my goal is to keep it going," she said.
Barry acknowledged that she had received assistance from Tufts students through such programs as Tufts Literacy Corps and Read by the River. "Tufts has been great," she said.
Freshman Adam Weldai, who attended the event as part of the Education for Active Citizenship (E4AC) Scholars program sponsored by the University College of Citizenship and Public Service, also had a positive reaction to Belson's speech.
"I found it was a good synopsis of the issues that the community is facing," he said.
Some were concerned, however, that the program that Belson presented did not have enough concrete steps.
"I think he set forth a very ambitious agenda. I just don't think it's very clear how it's going to happen," a Columbus Elementary School parent said at the meeting, who wished for her name to be withheld.
She added that the program has to reach a wide base in order to succeed. "The people who are here are probably the people who are most active in their schools already," she said.
Weldai, however, thought that the program went into sufficient depth considering the complexity of the topic. "For the issues he was talking about, it's as specific as he could have made it," he said.
Barry feels that implementation of the program should be dictated by personal interaction and tailored to fit each school. She stressed, however, the overriding importance of community-wide teamwork.
"If we don't have a truly common goal to improve a situation, then we're not going to do it," she said.
