FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 23, 2015) -- Faith Middle School's Partners in Education program operates like none other, said PIE coordinator, Carricia Simpson.
While the idea of school volunteers may often bring to mind the image of a parent sitting in the back of the classroom putting candy in a bag, Faith Middle School always uses its PIE partners to engage kids in learning.
"Our partners are utilized for tutoring, for mentoring and morale building in our school," Simpson said. "The reason our partnership program is unique is because that's all we utilize our partners for."
The purpose of PIE, a program established in 1987 by the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the Muscogee County School District, is to improve education through business and community involvement in public schools.
Faith Middle School partners with the 209th Military Police Detachment, the Directorate of Emergency Services, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Officer Candidate School, 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry, Faith Middle School Parent Teacher Organization, Troy University and Central Texas College.
Each school day, partners come into the school and work with students.
"Our partners are constantly coming and going. Every group (that comes in) fulfills some need that we have in our school," Simpson said.
Principal Darrell Mood said the attention students receive from the school's partners have made a drastic change in Scholastic Reading Inventory and Department of Defense Education Activity's benchmark assessment test scores.
"We've got data to prove the kids are doing better than just last year and the year before. The trend is going up," Mood said. "What is one of the major change at this school in the last two years? It's Soldiers assisting with coaching the teams ... tutoring students and mentoring students."
Mood said partnering with Soldiers benefits students in other ways as well.
"We need to remember that most of these kids have at least one parent who has been gone half of their lives due to various wars. So having (Soldiers) come and be with these kids is significant," he said.
Mood said even having Soldiers eat lunch or shoot basketball with students supports the curriculum.
"(PIE) is significant at this school. I get a little teary eyed, but it's making a difference," Mood said.
Sgt. Maj. Jason Copeland, with the Directorate of Emergency Services, serves as one of Faith Middle School's partners and said he often tries to bring in volunteers whose careers coincide with something students are learning about.
"I'm working right now to try and get Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate to come down to the robotics room," he said. "(Students) can see 'Wow, he's in the Army and he does robotics.'"
Copeland said evaluators were impressed with the PIE program when the school recently went through its accreditation process.
"They enjoyed the fact that we brought down Soldiers during testing sessions, so teachers could focus on different areas of improvement," Copeland said.
Soldiers from Officer Candidate School also play a big part in Faith Middle School's PIE program.
Capt. Mike Slapik, 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry OCS, said because candidates are often in holdover status with HHC, he is able to send two Soldiers to Faith Middle School every day.
Slapik said because their population changes so often, they are able to bring in many different skill sets to assist students.
"We have everything from lawyers to teachers to mathematicians to big data analysts," he said.
Volunteering at Faith Middle is a highly sought after assignment among the OCS candidates, Slapik said.
"We have to push people away and make sure that the other requirements we have are being fulfilled. We are actually able to be selective about the individuals we send so we can ensure that we send the highest quality, highest caliber (Soldiers)."
Though many of the volunteers at Faith Middle are Soldiers, the school also uses partners outside of Fort Benning.
Jackie Haire, with Central Texas College, said her organization attends career days, honor roll assemblies and makes a special presentation to eighth graders about getting prepared for college.
"I think if we come in at this age, while their brains are still working all the time and they are constantly thinking, we can instill that at the end of the day you need a college education in order to progress," she said.
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