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Spotlight: Manchester

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Manchester builds on success

The numbers from year one of MAPS (Manchester Agencies, Police, Schools Reducing Juvenile Arrest In Schools) are impressive, to say the least. The school-police partnership brought down arrests at Manchester High School by 77 percent in the 2011-2012 school year. That may sound like a happy ending, but it’s really just a beginning.

“We’re still moving forward,” said Heidi Macchi, outreach social worker for Manchester Public Schools and one of the co-coordinators of MAPS. Now the district is tackling suspensions, which rose somewhat as arrests decreased.

MAPS used a memorandum of agreement to build bridges between police, schools, community providers and others. The school system used a model memorandum of agreement developed by the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. An MOA is an agreement between the superintendent of schools and chief of police that clarifies the roles of educators and police in keeping order in schools. It typically leads to a much broader discussion about how communities can support kids and encourage good behavior.

The effort spawned new programs in Manchester’s middle and high schools, like a therapeutic alternative to silent afterschool detention called Play By the Rules. The program uses a curriculum adapted from one created by the Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education, edited for Connecticut by Civics First, Inc. and Juvenile Prosecutor Francis J. Carino and brought to Connecticut by Civics First, Inc.

“We’re there to let them vent and figure out what they could have done differently,” said Brenda Lorange, who coordinates the program. Not only do kids involved tend to stay out of trouble, the program has led to students sharing information with adults to prevent disturbances at school. In at least one case, student warnings allowed security officers to talk with two groups of students in conflict and defuse the situation before it got physical.

Play By the Rules was made possible with Just.Start funding. Now that the grant is completed, the program is actually expanding to serve more students. “These efforts are sustainable,” said Macchi. The partnerships that were forged when the community entered into the memorandum of agreement continue, and so does the work, she said. “The things that were going well last year are going better this year,” said Macchi. “It just begins to flow.”