Ep 28 | What’s THE Military High School for Escambia County?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Having to pick up and move every two years, make new friends, go through different classes, go through different state requirements for different classes, that's a whole nother ballgame.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Pensacola Naval Air Station has been the hub of naval aviation training in Pensacola since World War I. Our city has changed a lot since then, but it continues to host many military families in transition due to training. And change is hard for any family, but it can be especially nerve-wracking for a military family facing a slew of choices right upon arrival. One of which is where will my child go to school? My next guest is both a military spouse and an educator at what's considered the military school of our county, Escambia High School. Today she's going to share her perspective on the unique needs of military families and what specific resources are in place for them at Escambia High. English Language Arts Department Chair, Theater Kid, and Military Spouse, Claire Freer. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I'm so glad that we're talking about this because it's easy for outsiders to see the person in uniform as the service member, but all members of the military family serve and, you know, deserve specific re support, even the kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Absolutely. Our military kids, I think, go through a lot. It's not something that a lot of the students at Escambia High or within the district really understand unless they are a military kid. Having to pick up and move every two years, make new friends, go through different classes, go through different state requirements for different classes, that's a whole nother ballgame.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Oh, it really is. I didn't even think about different state requirements for different grades and classrooms.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Oh, yeah. And that's something I when I was going to a different college, a college from out of state, that was one of the things I noticed is their out-of-state requirement. I was like, my I didn't take that class. I don't know what that is. And they I'm like, well, you were from a different state, so it's fine. Your transcript says you graduated, so you're good. And our kids, they have to go, okay, well, I started my high school in California, so I took California history. I didn't take Florida history when I moved to Florida. So now they have to take Florida history, which is not really offered at the high school level. It's typically taken at the middle school level. So they'll have to do it online or they have to find a way to take it. And just different requirements for different states is something you don't really think about.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

No, and it's a lot to navigate. But I love seeing military families in our community engaged in our community like you are. So this makes me very happy. Uh, it's such a gift to our town because it brings in fresh perspective, it brings in fresh energy, which both you have a lot of, actually. Oh, yeah, all of the energy. Did you always want to work in education?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

No, not at all. So I if you had asked me, my freshmen, I teach freshmen. So they're like, they're how I relate my brain right now because that's how old they are. When I was a freshman in high school, I would have told you I wanted to double major in college in English and International Relations focused on Eastern Europe and Russia, and I wanted to be a diplomat. Um, that's really specific. Yes, because I'm extra like that. And uh my senior year of high school, my English teacher was absolutely phenomenal, and she really pushed me to understand that I had something natural that I didn't realize I had. And my mom was a teacher too at the high school. And so she was like, You're you're like your mom, but there's more to it than that. And she kind of pushed me towards that. I received a scholarship for teaching, and that was really hard to pass up. And the more I do it, the more I get why my background and everything I've done leading up to being an adult has led me to teaching. So you feel like it is the right fit for you? It is the right fit. It is freaking hard. Yeah. Every day, every day is a struggle. But being there, I just got even this morning, I got an email from a student who has to transfer out of my class. And he said, I hope you know that you were the reason I came to school every day. I'm about to start crying. But it and he just he said, Thank you for being there because a lot of my other teachers didn't get it or didn't get me. And I've had a rough couple of months in my personal life and my mental health. And in the last three days, I've received two emails from a former student when I taught in Mississippi, and then from a current student who's now transferring. And it just re it reminds you that what you're doing does actually matter.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

The imprint that teachers make on kids is forever. Just like your teacher made an imprint on you, and kind of we could say course corrected you from your diplomat career to making a difference for these kids. That's really special. I um you mentioned off-mic that military families potentially have a different mindset than other families. Can you explain that?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Absolutely. So there is a level of excellence that comes with being a military family. And I will say my husband is officer, so I am more specifically talking about the officer community just because that's the community I know. I don't know as much about the enlisted community for military, and those are different communities, but overall, I'm I have a deep background in military throughout my family. Um, my cousin was enlisted for 10 years in the Marine Corps, and my grandfather was 21 years during Vietnam, and all of my great-grandfathers served during World War II. So I have a deep military connection within my family. Um, throughout the military community, there is a level of excellence that is required of military children. And it's part of that military training for whoever their adult is that's in the military. It's also part of the training of being a spouse in the military, of you know you have to have excellence to be able to pick up and move on a dime, because that is something that is lurking in the back of your mind, of being able to know about a deployment maybe three days before. Sometimes you only get 24 hours notice, sometimes you get longer. But having that sitting in your brain is something that you get, you don't get used to it, but you get used to the idea that everything can change. So being a military kid, being a military student, there's a level of that excellence because they know that they have to be able to transfer those credits. They have to be able to transfer to a different school, uh, make new friends, go to a different state and understand what's happening. And I think that's something that I didn't really think about until I was teaching in a district that's military heavy.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

I I don't think that's I mean, I went to high school in uh military town, uh Offit Air Base, you know, in Nebraska, and almost all the kids were military. I was like the odd person out who wasn't. And they definitely um were very ambitious, I noticed. Are there any other qualities that you notice with, you know, your school kind of being the military school that has really stood out character-wise or behavior-wise that those kids are different from the kids that are at the other schools you've been at?

SPEAKER_01 7:58

So I've only ever taught at one other school. Um, and it's a school I student taught at as well. So I only really have experience with the one, and then of course the school I went to, um, but both of those were not in military communities. So what I've noticed is that the ROTC, the J R O T C program at Iskambia High School in particular, and I know throughout the district there are a few ROTC programs that are very competitive. But even the school I taught at Mississippi was very competitive, but it was nothing like I scambia high school, the Escambia High School J R O T C program, and it's a naval, so it's um Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Gotcha. You got it. That was good. I had to think about it for a second there. Uh, but their program is incredibly competitive, especially at those upper levels. We have a lot of students who aren't military who will join the J. Rotzy program, but a lot of the ones that stay, so they're the ones that are juniors and seniors that are still in the J. Rotzy program, they're typically either military kids or they are planning on going into the military, which um I find very interesting because the school I attended for high school in California, which wasn't a super military, there just wasn't a lot of military. There's not a base super near there. But there weren't a lot of kids that considered the military as an option. And I think having the military base so close and having so many students from military families, it provides that option for a lot of our students who aren't ready to go to college or don't want to go to college, or maybe they're just trying to make sure they actually graduate. But the military offers them something more. It offers that family aspect. You know, you know you can tell the military members walking around this town by their haircuts, you know who they are. Yes. So I think that that's something that our school in particular has that's really fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

That's interesting. Yeah, you're right. It was always an option where I went to high school. Um, so it was like, oh, you're not gonna, you know, enlist, or it's a good way to get your college paid for as well. Absolutely so it's just nice to know what your resources are. And I think, you know, especially here in such a military heavy town. Now, Scambia High School was, correct me if I'm wrong, the only non-lottery high school in our county to be recognized by the Department of Education as the Florida Department of Education as a purple star school. Can you help me understand what that means?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So purple star, um, I think is it purple star or purple ribbon?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

It says purple purple star school.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Okay. I thought it was purple ribbon. I'm crazy. It's fine. Um, so that means that the resources, there's I think there's like four or five criteria for being a purple ribbon star. I'm gonna call it ribbon star. Purple school. Purple school. Sure, gas. Yeah. Um, to be a purple school, there are a few different requirements, and Iskambi high school met all of those requirements. And we have, I believe we've had that. Um I can't think of the word, declaration, accommodation, whatever. We've had that for years upon years. And some of the qual, you know, you have to have a certain population number that's within military life or within that. You have to have certain resources that are offered. And um that's really I didn't realize we were the only non-lottery school on that list. That's pretty big deal. That's super cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Do you know what the criteria are?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Um, not off the top of my head. Um I think there are also like service requirements. You have to have some sort of service requirement within the military, um, which in our case we have a and a lot of the schools on that list and not on that list have military life counselors, which is a counselor that is specifically available for military families. On site? On site every day. Interesting. Unless they have meetings or whatever, but every single day. Um, and ours in particular, we have, I know for our high school, again, I can't speak to others, but for ours, we actually have something that's called the quarter deck, which is like a lounge area that's specifically for military. So it's military to students and military faculty member as well, faculty members to go. There's a popcorn machine in there, so she makes popcorn about once a week. Um, and then there's, you know, chairs and games and things, and it's just a place to sit and hang out and and talk to people that are in similar situations as you. And they also have the option to, um, if they have a family member that is deployed, the uh chair and the computer in that room are specific for that. So they can um Skype and FaceTime with family members that are deployed.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

How does that work if the student's in class and they go They'll call the student out.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Really? And they'll make sure that if if a parent is um deployed and they have the option to FaceTime or Skype with them, then they'll call them out of class and bring them to make sure they can get that interaction that they need.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Wow, that's such a big deal. Now, is that where the military life counselor is also?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yes, she's in there. Um it's Miss Lyons. Hi, Miss Lyons. She's very, very sweet. Um she I think she's new, she's been here about a year, maybe. Um, but she's incredible. And she actually, when I told her I was doing this, she printed out a bunch of resources for me to look at and um to tell y'all about. So it was exciting. She's she's really wonderful, and um, it's also good as a military spouse because I can go in there and she gets it. She understands what's going on. We have quite a few military spouses or former military and retired that are um that are at our school serving as teachers now. So it's really it's really nice to have a place to go for that.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

So, what does that feel like for you being a military spouse and having those resources right where you work?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

I feel very supported. Um, my the school I taught at previously, I absolutely loved where I was, but nobody understood what being a military spouse was. And before my husband and I moved down to Pensacola, he was in California for a year while I stayed in Mississippi. So we would see each other once every four to six, seven weeks, which is still more than a lot of people in the military, but it was hard. It was really hard. And anybody I talked to, their response was always, Oh, I don't know how you do that. I don't, I I couldn't do that. And while that's really nice and really appreciative, it doesn't help. And having a military life counselor that's there for us, she understands. And the other spouses, there's a few spouses um at our campus, and we all kind of will talk and hang out sometimes. And it's nice to know that you have that support of people that get it. It there's something like of course, when you're if you have a a spouse who is in a job that travels a lot, you're not gonna see them very much. But it's different when you have a spouse who's putting their life on the line. It's a different feeling.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And I mean, imagine being a a kid and your dad or mom are putting their lives on the line, and you're trying you're supposed to focus on writing an essay. Oh yeah. I mean, you're an English teacher. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

And like there's just the knowing that that support is there. And I don't I don't have a lot of military students in my particular classes that goes back to the ens excellence that we talked about. They're um oftentimes in the honors classes, which is again, it it just speaks to raising children in the military community. But the I I couldn't imagine the pressure, and I know I have bad days, and I tell my kids when I have bad days, because ain't no way I'm gonna be able to teach if I'm having a bad day, and um and they're much more receptive to it than you think they would be. And this is the military and the non-military kids because they get it. Like being a teenager is hard. Think back. Being a being a teenager is hard, especially now with the pressure of social media and everything like that. That's not easy. Add on to it being a military child, add on to it that you've moved and you have friends all over the country and you haven't seen your best friend in three years because you moved away. That's a whole like that's a different level of stress and pressure. And luckily for those military kids, we do have social media so they can contact them. But it's still not the same as being able to see your friend in the hallway every day. We have so many people that, and this is across the country and the world where they don't ever move away from where they live. And military families are like, well, I've lived in six states now, pick one.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yeah, yeah. I'm so glad that Pensacola has resources for the high school that is really positioned closest to where a lot of those military family live. Um, that that is such a good resource to know. Uh, before we sign off, uh you coming in from out of state and kind of getting a feel for the kids, the community, the resources, you know, the families. What do you want people to know about Escambia County Public Schools?

SPEAKER_01 17:16

So I know there was an article recently published about there being a difficulty in recruitment for military to bring them to Penn School because of the schools. And I understand, trust me, I get it. Uh, but I think that there are resources that and oftentimes are underutilized resources that are available typically at the schools that are closer to base that they're not necessarily going to get at other schools. And I I want families that are military families that are potentially moving here to know that your child is excellent. They are, and they will be excellent whether they're at Escambia High School or West Florida or Pine Forest or Washington. Your child is still going to be an excellent student and they're going to have excellent friends. Don't be afraid that they're not going to be successful because of the location they're at. You have instilled as a parent and a military parent spouse or the member themselves, you have instilled in your child adaptability, and they will adapt to their surroundings. And I promise you, no matter where you end up, your kids are going to be okay. That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing today. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.