Northside Middle School has been awarded $110,000 from the stronger connection grant.

This was announced at the Lexington County District 2 Sept. 19 board meeting at 6 p.m., where other items such as awards, new programs, safety and grants were discussed.

According to schoolsafety.gov, the grant “​​funds to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments and to respond to inquiries the Department of Education has received from [state education agencies], [local education agencies], and students and families, about program implementation.”

The school will utilize this grant with supporting their comprehensive plan to address key challenges within the school.

These issues are correlated to crime, absenteeism and behavior incidents that have occurred. Last year, according to the principal of Northside Middle School, Dr. Tiffany Hall, the school reduced behavioral referrals by 100. The grant will assist the school to target tactics that will focus on character education, academic improvement and building a positive school culture. The funding will have a meaningful impact on the student outcomes in addressing the unique needs of the school.

In other news

Also at the Sept. 19 meeting, it was announced that Hannah Pond, an ELA teacher at Busbee Creative Arts Academy, was named a 2024 Javits Fraiser scholar, making her one of just 10 educators selected nationwide. The Javits Fraiser Scholars program was created to acknowledge passionate, innovative educators who serve culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Brookland-Cayce High School and Cayce Elementary School have partnered together for a new program called L2 Full Circle. This occurs once a week at Cayce Elementary during recess. This program gives students additional learning opportunities and for high school students to interact with elementary school students.

Brookland-Cayce High School students are understanding how to become efficient mentors as well as receive professional development. The L2 Full Circle creators wanted to build a framework that allowed high school students to find children in elementary school who may not be playing basketball, for example, or may not be playing with friends, according to Lexington Two officials. The Brookland-Cayce students help identify students that need a friend and become mentors, providing support to these particular students.

The program teaches students how to become mentors, serve their community beyond the high school building while planting the seed to grow future LEX2 educators and comprehend the significance of inclusion and unity. College students have been mentoring high school students, while high school students have become mentors to elementary students, making it a full circle.

L2 Full Circle will furthermore encourage high school graduations, college graduations and students following a career path.

In District Two schools, apps and security updates were shared with the public. The RAPTOR report, an app that all teachers have access to, allows them to initiate an emergency notification during school hours. Additionally, the app has team assistance for smaller incidents inside a classroom. Educators can use team assistance to ask for help in case of a problem.

Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management, also known as BTAM, provides information and questions to ask students to help assess behavior that may be dangerous. The National Threat Assessment Center which is run by the Secret Service and the FBI found that, on average, in the event of a school crisis and school shooting, the shooter showed four to five concerning behaviors prior to that and it was mostly noticed by their teachers and their peers.

Students can report concerning behavior they have come in contact with or see on social media on the tip line at lex2tipline@lex2.org.

The next Lexington 2 school board meeting will be on Oct. 17 at 6 p.m at the District Education Center located at 3205 Platt Springs Rd. in West Columbia.