Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast
Our podcast serves as a platform to share the voices and stories of our people - our learners and employees - who shape the vision of Chesapeake Public Schools. This podcast provides our community with a unique insight into district operations, demonstrating how the division creates opportunities, prioritizes innovation, and elevates potential. New episodes are released monthly and feature a wide range of topics, including student achievements, innovative teaching practices, community partnerships, and important district initiatives. You can listen to the stories behind our story by subscribing on your favorite podcast platforms or by visiting cpschools.com/amplified.
Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast
Supporting Our Military Families
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Discover the profound impact of Chesapeake Public Schools' collaboration with military-connected students, as Laura Lerf, Family and Community Engagement Specialist, and Captain Matt Frauenzimmer the Commanding Officer from NSA Hampton Roads join us. Together, they share their experiences and the specialized resources designed to ease the challenges faced by nearly a quarter of our student body with military ties. Our conversation unveils how programs like the Anchored for Life clubs and the prestigious Purple Star School designation are not just accolades but lifelines for students navigating the complexities of military family life.
This episode is a celebration of the resilience and diversity these students bring, with personal insights into the life-changing support provided by military school liaisons and Military Family Life Counselors. Tune in to hear about this successful partnership that makes our district a model for others to follow.
The Stories Behind Our Story
Supporting Military Families in Education
Speaker 1The school year might be nearing an end, but now is the time to enroll and register your child for the 2024-2025 school year. Visit cpschoolscom for more information on how to register your child today. Welcome to Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.
Speaker 2Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.
Speaker 1All right, welcome back. This is Matt Graham here with Richie Babb, and we are here on another episode of Amplified, the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. And we are just back from spring break. Happy to be here. It was a great break, did you have a good?
Speaker 2break I did. I didn't take vacation for the whole time.
Speaker 1But it was relaxing, it was nice.
Speaker 2nice, I'm sure I mean being the family man you have. Well, not that I'm but, but my kids are just grown, uh, but I'm sure you had a full spring break, oh, man.
Speaker 1Well, we took. I took a couple days off, but the kids were off and we had the in-laws in town from new york okay it was a great time. I love having them in it. Our house definitely turns into like a little mini hotel, hotel Graham, yep Hotel Graham.
Speaker 2Hotel Graham was over for spring break. Yeah, but one thing.
Speaker 1I can tell you, though, is they're already back and I still get text messages from them saying how cold it is.
Speaker 2Sorry about your luck. Yeah, you should have stayed. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, buy some property.
Speaker 1Yeah, but anyways, one got is that April is the month of the military child Right. And did you know, Richie, that Hampton Roads is home to the largest naval base in the world and the only NATO command on US soil?
Speaker 2Well, yes and no, I knew that the largest naval base was here. I think a lot of people know that yeah, yeah. But I did not know that the only NATO operation on US soil was here. Yeah, I didn't know that either I. I didn't know that either. I mean, I knew NATO was here, but I didn't know that.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. And then in Chesapeake, in our school system, 20 to 25 percent of the students are military-connected students Wow, that's like 8,000 or 9,000 kids. That's a lot of kids, it is, it is, it's a lot.
Speaker 1Yeah, and on this episode we're very happy to have two people that work military-connected kids within our school system. One of our success stories and another story behind our story here in Chesapeake Public Schools is the strong connection that we have with the military and the support that we provide for our military families and students. Today we have two special guests Laura Lerf, a family and community engagement specialist with Chesapeake Public Schools, and Captain Frown Zimmer, the commanding officer for NSA Hampton Roads. Welcome to the podcast and, laura, can you go ahead and start us off and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 4Yeah, absolutely so. I am a proud Chesapeake Public Schools graduate and I started my career here in 2008. I started at Indian River Middle School as an English teacher, spent seven years there and then kind of realized that I wanted to help students more on the emotional side of things. So I got my degree in school counseling and I was at Hugo Owens Middle School as the sixth grade counselor for six years. And while I was there I served as the school's military point of contact, planning events for the military families and, you know, making sure our military connected students got acclimated and just really realized that I loved working with the families. You know, a big part of being the sixth grade counselor is helping those students get acclimated to middle school, but helping their parents get acclimated to middle school as well. And then when I saw that this position as a family and community engagement specialist came open, I thought I'd go for it, and now this is my third year in the role.
Speaker 2Very nice. Now, Captain Franz Zimmer, you're originally from California, right yeah, San Clemente, California and so tell us something about the route to get here.
Speaker 3Yeah, great. My dad grew up on the East Coast, ended up on the West Coast. My dad was a Marine Corps infantry officer and similar I was Navy, went to school on the East Coast, spent most of my time in West Coast, in fact Northwest. Right after we got married, my wife and I came through here. I was in a course at Naval Station Norfolk. We fell in love with the area, made some great friends, and so at the end of my squadron command tour we said, hey, we have a couple options of where we want to go, and to the top of the list was the Hampton Roads area.
Speaker 1So that's how we landed Now.
Speaker 3there was 16 moves in 19 years before that, but we have been here. This summer will be eight years.
Speaker 2Wow, wow. So do you get to stay how long? You know how long you're going to be here.
Speaker 3That's the plan. Okay, Okay To write retire here in the old dominion and and uh raise our family.
Speaker 2Okay, Well, tell us about your family. You have kids and I do. I got a.
Speaker 3I got a 15 old daughter that is in fourth grade at WH Taylor Elementary School, and my wife and I will celebrate 25 years being married here in about a week.
Speaker 2Wow, well, congratulations. Wow, that's very impressive.
Speaker 1Yeah, so how did y'all's roles sort of intersect? Where did the collaboration start? And begin.
Speaker 3You know, for me, the first time I met Laura was when we did servicing our schools. I think she had just got here. I had just got here and this was 2021. So it's on the tail end of COVID, still kind of in that, that that fragile area, and it was August and we did servicing our schools, where I bring a whole bunch of sailors on in and we prepare the classrooms for the school year to come. This is, you know, hey, we're going to be back in session again. This was awesome and that was the first time that I met and understood what Chesapeake Public Schools was about.
Speaker 4Yeah, and when I came into this role, part of it was being the point of contact for our military families for the district, and so I kind of took a lot of the lead from the military school liaison, who at the time was Dr Jeffrey McGee, and so we started doing military partnership meetings with Captain Fraunzimmer and leadership from our schools and representatives from NSA Hampton Roads, and we just kind of made sure that we were supporting all of our military families. You know, what are the challenges that they're facing? What can we do to support them while we're here, what kinds of things do we need to be aware of? And so just making sure that we have that continued partnership.
Speaker 2Do you find, having moved around that school systems this is common in school systems to have this sort of support in this kind of program?
Speaker 3Never seen it before. To be quite honest, and I'm not surprised Chesapeake Public Schools is the first and only in the Commonwealth of Virginia to be 100% Purple Star Schools and I heard a lot of great things about Chesapeake. You know from people that I've worked with before and then coming here and seeing it and putting your hands on it. You know, with Dr Cott and the rest of the team that they have, they're engaged in a way that I never saw before in any of the other school districts that I've been.
Speaker 2Yeah. So, Laura, tell us something about the kind of supports that we offer. I know you've said some things.
Speaker 4So Purple Star, I think, is definitely an important component.
Speaker 4That's a designation that's awarded by the Virginia Department of Education.
Speaker 4Our schools, every three years, have to complete a really detailed application, just kind of detailing all of the things that they do for our military-connected students. They have to provide evidence of a well-established peer transition program. They have to detail everything that they do for our students who are receiving special education services. There's different training modules that the points of contact have to complete, as well as everybody in the school, and it's also a really great way for them to, you know, show all of the awesome activities that they do for Veterans Day and Memorial Day and Month of the Military Child, which is celebrated in April. So I think that's really important. We're also really excited to have some military family life counselors in our schools and that's been really awesome to see. You know, in the three years that I've been in this position, years that I've been in this position, when I started we had call them MFLEX Military Family Life Counselors. We had them serving, I want to say, three of our schools and now they're in 27 of our schools.
Speaker 4So it's just, it's such a great resource. And then our current military school liaison, ms Tiffany Johnson. She's amazing. I had a chance to work with her when I was a school counselor at Hugo and she's another one that's always there to answer any questions that families have. She'll get them connected with me, I get the families connected with her and we just make sure that we're serving them any way that we can.
Speaker 4And another thing we have is our Anchored for Life clubs, which are in several of our schools and that actually serves as the peer transition piece for that school's Purple Star designation.
Speaker 4And so they do different things, like having quotes on the morning announcements, you know about resilience and things like that. All of our new students that come in and not just military connected students, all new students that come in. They give them a tour of the building, they introduce them to the key people that you should know in the schools. And the coolest thing, I think, is that they provide our schools with different kits at no charge to the school. The schools can order as many as they need. They offer kits for new students. It's a really cool swag bag that's got pencils and different cool things in it that kids might need for school. They offer deployment kits for students who have a parent going out on deployment. They offer grief kits if a student loses a parent and divorce kits if they've got a student whose parents are going through divorce. So all of these different resources that this club offers to our students thanks to our partnership with the military.
Speaker 3Yeah, Anchored for Life, fully federal funded, and just a great partnership with schools.
Speaker 1Nice and you were just last month at Hickory, right, yeah, what was happening over there.
Speaker 3Yeah, so Read Across America Day. It's my most favorite day of the year. Every year, it's what I look forward to reading the book without pictures to a whole bunch of kindergarten and you can tell that it is one of his favorite activities.
Speaker 4It is so fun to watch him read that.
Speaker 3I'll tell you it's the highlight of my tour so far and reading to those kids and it's just. They're the future leaders and it's always a great time.
Speaker 1Right, and it's not just you, though, it's your team, right, that come to do that.
Speaker 3Yep, we bring. I think we had 40 sailors that came on in and across Chesapeake Public Schools. Some did it in Norfolk Public Schools as well to do the Read Across America, and then our child development centers as well.
Speaker 4And he doesn't just come in and read either. You know he allows the kids to ask him questions and he doesn't just come in and read either. You know he allows the kids to ask him questions. He kind of talks about his experience, the kids being able to hear that you've lived on what all but one continent.
Speaker 4You know, it's so cool for them to hear that experience and they're able to ask him questions on things that he's seen and things that he's gone through. And a lot of our kids don't ever leave Chesapeake and so for them to have someone to come in and be a guest in their school and hear about those different experiences, it's really powerful to see.
Speaker 2So what's the one continent, antarctica.
Speaker 3Antarctica A penguin, you got it.
Speaker 2Good for you. You didn't have to live there. Wow, so this just occurred to me. Obviously, we have a huge military presence in Hampton Roads. How do you get to be the guy that is the liaison with us?
Speaker 3Yeah, great question. So when we take a look at the military bases, I like to say when God created the big three bases, that's, Norfolk Naval Station, Jeb Little Creek and Oceana, I have all the rest and part of all.
Speaker 3The rest is here in Chesapeake with the exception of Fentress and that's Oceana's, that's here in Chesapeake. But I'm kind of the lead when we took a look at the commanding officers where naturally should I be involved in that community, enriching the community, and we have 3,000 acres. I was just down with a couple of Chesapeake city councilmen and deputy city manager down and given a tour of our installation down in Northwest Annex, commonly referred to as the radio station down there, and so for me I am the lead guy for the Navy with Chesapeake.
Speaker 2So one of the things we do, of course, is our that you mentioned before is our Operation Military Families. Tell us about that.
Speaker 4Yeah, so this year it'll be our third annual event. It's being held on Saturday, april 27th, at Indian River High School. It's starting at 3.30. And it's just a really fun way for us to celebrate our military families. We always hold it during April, which is month of the military child, and so we make sure to have some informational sessions for our families on things like supporting your child through deployment, but at the same time we also make sure to offer different school and community and military related resources. We have our human resources department brooding any of those military spouses that might need a job and just offering them information and resources that are available in Chesapeake. And then, while the parents are visiting their informational sessions, we've got really fun team-building activities for our students to participate in and we're really excited this year We've got the United States Fleet Forces Band Woodwind Quintet. That's going to be performing for our families as well.
Speaker 2And it's really well attended. It has been the last couple of years right.
Supporting Military Families and Students
Speaker 4Yeah, it's something that they really seem to enjoy. I think we had a parent reach out not too long ago wondering when it was going to be, so that makes us happy. We're excited to put that on.
Speaker 3Yeah, as Earth Day is coming on up, we plant a tree with you guys every single year.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, that's right. You were at Chittum, I think, last year. That's a beautiful school, it is, it is.
Speaker 3Yeah, so we'll be planting trees again with you guys this year. There are other opportunities that we do in service projects to come on in and then otherwise, as we go on through. Hey, what are some of the things that are changing in the Hampton Roads? What are the other deployments? How do we prepare for certain things? And then just being your advocate as well on the federal side, when it comes down to federal funding and stuff like that or other areas that we can throw the federal government, the weight of the federal government behind when we're looking at other funding and other types of things, I know that both of you experienced the challenges that military families have each side of the coin, different sides of the coin so I'd like for each of you to talk about what you perceive as the challenges that military children and families have.
Speaker 2And, Laura, you can start with you.
Speaker 4My counseling experience, I always saw kids that varied so much coming into the school system.
Speaker 4You know you have these kids who are PCSing to the area you know permanent change of station and some of them will walk right into your school building and say hand me my schedule and point me in the right direction, I'm good. But then you have other students who really need that extra care and that extra support making friends. They might be a little bit more on the shy side and so just I love seeing the variations in kids and that's where I love being able to step in in my school counselor role and help those students get acclimated. And then, as far as the families, everything from school district to school district is so different. You've come from different parts of the country and different parts of the world and it's just hard to figure out how everything works when you're in a new spot. So I love being able to kind of help those families navigate how it is in Chesapeake, answer any of their questions and link them up to anybody else that can be of support to them.
Speaker 2Yeah, and you've experienced it both as a parent and as a kid. Yeah Right.
Speaker 3Well, I didn't have to experience it as a kid. My dad was out of the Marine Corps by then.
Speaker 1I mean.
Speaker 3I never moved once growing up, but I've seen it through the eyes of my kid. My oldest daughter went to four schools in one year. That's a lot of schools.
Speaker 2Yeah, wow.
Speaker 3Between Northern Virginia, florida and Washington State. Oh gosh, and that's navigating so many different things, and having someone like Lori to hold your hand when you show on up is absolutely critical, especially when you're just trying to figure out where's my towels so I can take a bath as you're moving across.
Speaker 2Yeah, right, all right. So, Laura, we've been talking about sort of the challenges and the needs of military kids and military families, but the experience that these military kids bring to school gives them a sort of unique perspective and unique abilities, right?
Speaker 4Oh, absolutely. You know, when I was at Hugo I ran a club, an after-school club, for our military-connected students, and I remember one of the activities that I did was I put up a map of the world and I had them put a thumbtack or something as to all of the places that they've lived, tack or something as to all of the places that they've lived, and just seeing the places all over the world where our students have gone, listening to them talk about the different foods that they've eaten and, like I said earlier, some of our students here don't ever leave Chesapeake. So having those students with those worldly experiences bringing them to our other students, I think it really opens their eyes and I mean it allows these military-connected students to have friends all over the world. With social media and technology the way that it is today, they don't ever have to lose touch with their friends. They can keep in contact with them and have friends wherever they go. So it's really cool to see.
Speaker 2And the other thing, I think probably getting these military kids together. It gives them a support network among kids who have some of the same experiences.
Speaker 4Yeah, I totally agree with that. I ran a deployment group when I was at Hugo and being able to kind of listen to the kids say where's your parent deployed right now? You know, this is where mine is and oh gosh, they might be in the same spot or close to each other or something like that. It's just, it's really cool. We certainly don't discount any of their struggles, but just to kind of watch them flip it around and say well, this is what I get to do instead of this is what I have to go through.
Speaker 4This is what I get to do. It's just really cool.
Speaker 1Do y'all have any special messages or anything that you would like to share with our military connected families and students?
Speaker 4I think I just want our families to know that we have so many supports that are available to you. Please reach out anything that you need. We will do our best to connect you with if we can help in any way.
Speaker 2Yeah, and it just occurred to me. There may be some military people listening who are like I didn't know, you offered all that. What's their best way, what's their best route to getting?
Speaker 4in touch with you and taking advantage of some of these offerings. So they can reach out to me directly lauralurf at cpschoolscom. Or they can reach out to me directly lauralerf at cpschoolscom, or they can reach out to the Office of Family and Community Engagement.
Speaker 4Our office is obviously the one that puts on all of the events. We do a military family workshop in November of every year. So it's ongoing activities and, like I said, we're always available to connect them to any supports that they may need to. So they're free to reach out to me. They're free to reach out to Tiffany Johnson and we'll help them in any way that we can.
Speaker 3And that same vein for any of the folks, regardless of the service that they're in whether they're Navy, army, air Force, marines or Space Force going to their installation. Each installation has a school liaison officer and that is your entry into the door for either coming in or leaving, and that school liaison officer is your one-stop shop for all that. That gets you in contact with whatever school that you're going to. So for those that are here in Chesapeake that are going somewhere else, that school liaison officer is your first stop. When you get those PCS orders to go to Timbuktu to figure out how do I go from this school district to that school district, they know exactly the interstate compacts that are there and then they're going to reach out to that school liaison in that location that you're going and have a warm handoff in between your student and that student wherever they're going in the world, whether it's overseas or whether it's in the US, wherever, that school liaison is absolutely critical for that first step.
Speaker 3When you get those permanent change of station orders, talk to your school liaison. What are the schools I want to go to or what you know I'm going to go to this school? What do I need to know? Hey, let me put you in contact with this person, let me call them and now you got a friend right when you show up and they should be doing the same thing over as they're coming on in, going through Tiffany, going to Laura and being able to connect those kids immediately when they show up and that's you know, those are some of the highest stress times are when you're doing that PCS move and, granted, you do make friends faster.
Speaker 3As a military brat, I'm supposed to tell you that brat is an acronym, it's a brave, resilient adaptable and tough, but you know, that's an initial type of thing Just to take one thing out of the parents or the kids' bucket as they're moving. They're going to have a friendly face and they're going to have someone that reaches out even before they show up I mean via email or whatever the case may be to connect you and to say hey, you know, tommy's going to meet with Billy, he's going to be on the buddy bench on Tuesday, your first day at school.
Speaker 4That's awesome to have that friendly face on it, and that's where it starts, and we're lucky because Tiffany's so great, we work so well together. We've been working together for years and we've got each other on speed dial. I really don't think that there is a day that goes by that we're not either talking on the phone or texting with each other and she really does a great job of connecting with our families, like you said, that are coming in or going out.
Military Families Podcast Interview Event
Speaker 1She just she has so much information to offer them. So we're just, we're really lucky to have this partnership. I want to thank you both for coming in today and being on our podcast and sharing all this information for our families.
Speaker 3Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you so much Thank you.
Speaker 1We hope you enjoyed this episode of Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast and we want to extend a special thank you to all of our military families and connected students. And don't forget to RSVP to our annual Operation Military Families event that's held on April 27th 2024 at 3.30 pm at Indian River High School. You can RSVP and find out more information by visiting cpschoolscom.
