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Tammy Smith (in white), K-12 School Liaison for Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., hands out information at the Marine Corps Marathon tent at the Walk/Run at Work Day & Annual Health Fair on Friday. Working the Health Fair is one of Smith's many partnership activities with her counterparts in MCCS.

Photo by Adele Uphaus-Conner

School liaison builds bridges between regional schools and military students

24 Sep 2015 | Adele Uphaus-Conner Marine Corps Base Quantico

The average military child moves six to nine times throughout his or her school career, more than three times the rate of a non-military child, according to Tammy Smith, K-12 School Liaison for Marine Corps Base Quantico.

The technical details of transferring schools — meeting enrollment deadlines, making sure credits transfer and immunizations are up to date — can be difficult to navigate, not to mention the emotional upheaval of constant moving.

Tammy Smith is here to help.

“We’re here to help families get to know the schools before they get here,” Smith explained. “Most of the time, we never meet them. If we don’t, we’ve done our job.”

Smith’s office supports students in grades K-12 whose parents are serving in any branch of the military. Families can contact Smith and her office as soon as they know they are moving to MCB Quantico or the surrounding areas of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Prince William, and Fauquier counties, or Fredericksburg City. Smith then liaises with the school the student will be attending to make sure teachers and administrators understand the particular psycho-educational needs of the military child.

Some of these needs, as identified by the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3), are exclusion from extra-curricular activities due to late arrival to the school, penalization for missing state-mandated tests, variances in kindergarten and first grade entrance ages, transfer of records, gaps in certain academic areas due to inconsistent course sequencing, and meeting graduation requirements.

There are 14,513 military dependent school aged children in the area. 10,719 of those are active duty military dependents — and of those, 4,627 are active duty USMC dependents. Most of the USMC dependent children attend Prince William and Stafford county public schools. There are 164 schools in the region Smith coordinates with on behalf of the military child.

Smith not only coordinates with local schools about individual children, but represents military children on a systemic or state-wide level. She advises school systems on regulations, sits on the boards of educational agencies, and attends government committees.

“We want to help all of those groups to develop policies that support military children,” she said.

The MIC3, mentioned above, is one initiative that has passed with Smith’s championship. The Compact allows for uniform treatment of military children among the 40 states that have adopted it. Smith also pushed for Virginia to implement the Military Student Identifier, which it recently did. She hopes the Identifier will improve the aid funding received by local schools from the Federal Impact Program.

In 2014, Stafford County received $983,126.18, Prince William $609,619.31 and Spotsylvania County $177,107.89 in Impact Aid money.

Smith said she is particularly proud of a workshop she led in August with Family Team Building and the Family Advocacy Program for 75 teachers from Prince William County’s Ashland Elementary School.

“We provided a half-day, hands-on training on what it is like to be a military kid,” Smith explained.

The workshop participants made Dream Sheets and then received posting assignments to installations that were not on their Sheets. They had to select a limited amount of items to put in a temporary household box. Then they had to travel together from one virtual base to another nearby, with long-distance detours to visit grandparents nowhere nearby.

“It made a huge impact on the teachers,” Smith said. “I really hope to repeat it!”

The School Liaison position was established seven years ago by General and Mrs. Amos, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps and his wife. Smith is the first and original school liaison specialist at MCB Quantico.

Prior to the position’s creation, no one did the work Smith’s office does.

“Parents were left to find out information on their own,” Smith said. “It was all word of mouth. Word of mouth is great, but data helps families make better choices.”

The local schools appreciate the School Liaison as much as families do.

Each year, Smith and the base commander organize and host a K-12 Education Symposium, which has the goal of strengthening the partnership between the installation and the schools. The seventh annual symposium will be held on March 16, 2016. 200 educators attended last year’s symposium, Smith said.

“Dr. [Steven L.] Walts [Prince William County Superintendent of Schools] said that before this event, it was like Quantico was this big, dark secret,” said Smith. “But now, he says everything has opened up.”

The School Liaison position is a challenging job that carries a lot of responsibility, but that’s what Smith enjoys about it.

“I enjoy the daily challenge,” she said. “There’s nothing worse than being bored. Every day is different. I may think I have a plan for my day, but it never works out.”

The only downside is that she often feels there aren’t enough hours in the day to meet everyone’s needs.

Smith is originally from Detroit, MI. Her husband, William, retired from the Marine Corps in 2001. With their two daughters, they were posted to Logistics Base Albany, Logistics Base Barstow, Camp Pendleton, and overseas to Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa.

“We counted once, and I think we’ve been in 40 of the 50 states,” Smith said.

As the mother of children who grew up in DoDEA, DDESS, and local schools, Smith understands the challenges faced by military dependents. And she knows that these very challenges are often what make these kids strong.

“My kids had challenges which made them better people,” Smith said. “They have a lot more respect for different cultures. They’re more resilient.”

— Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com
Marine Corps Base Quantico