One of the most important roles of any educator is ensuring all students have the chance to succeed. But some students face unique challenges, and it is up to pupil personnel administrators to ensure they have the support and resources they need.
One such administrator is Pamela Hosmer, program manager in San Diego USD, who has been named ACSA’s 2009 Pupil Personnel Administrator of the Year. In her current role, Hosmer is program manager for special education, principal of the Licensed Children’s Institute, and the district liaison for homeless and foster children.
Hosmer said what she loves most about her job is building structures that support students, especially those who arrive at school without solid support systems already in place.
She describes this as “any supports that help even the playing field for the student population I am responsible for – those students in special education that are eligible for services under the federal handicapping condition of emotional disability, and all foster and homeless children and youth in the district.”
Hosmer works to establish programs and practices that support the most at-risk students. She also works closely with community services agencies, such as the county mental health department and health and human services department, to ensure students have the support they need. However, this isn’t always easy.
“The urgency of the children’s needs is the focal point of everything I do,” Hosmer said. “Consequently, one of the most challenging parts of the job is dealing with multiple bureaucracies. We have to navigate the bureaucracies of education, social services and mental health – and all the substructures that exist under those bureaucracies. The students and their families need what they need now. Waiting and being patient is a challenge.”
One of Hosmer’s major accomplishments is providing support for students with emotional disabilities. When she took this responsibility six years ago, many of these students were moved from school to school. School staff did not always know how to address the special needs of these students, and there was a high rate of turnover at the comprehensive schools.
After collaborating with principals and teachers, Hosmer helped develop a plan to provide these students with the mental health support they needed. She worked with the Mental Health Resource Center to establish a Mental Health Intervention Team, licensed mental health technicians and rehabilitation specialists who worked with teachers and administrators. Combining funding from the district, county, MediCal and grants, services for students and their families were expanded throughout the district.
“In short, we needed a seamless ‘marriage’ between education and mental health,” Hosmer said. “We changed the focus of our separate facilities to a school with an integrated education and day treatment model. Students arrive and work on specific goals, and then are integrated back into their home school. This is a big change, as historically students remained at the separate facility for many years.
“The most significant result is that now the comprehensive schools ‘own’ the students. There is more school stability and less movement, consequently more opportunity for the child to receive consistent academic support and interventions,” she said. “There are more children and families involved in therapy because it is accessible in their community, and there are more students in lesser restrictive environments.
Hosmer’s latest project is building a district-wide support system for children with parents serving in the military. Oftentimes, these students have unique challenges making academic success difficult.
“As a nation, we recognize the sacrifices of the active duty parent, but we have not recognized the sacrifices the children make,” Hosmer said. “They move regularly, they progress through life without one or both parents for chunks of time, they suffer from separation and then they face the challenges of reunification. And some face heartbreak and hardship. We need to do better by these children.”
Hosmer has been in San Diego USD since 1988, where she served as a special education teacher, resource teacher and coordinator until 2002. At that time, she took her current position as program manager of special education and principal of the Licensed Children’s Institute, and in 2008 she became the district liaison for homeless and foster youth.
Hosmer’s personal philosophy for leading her programs is to do whatever it takes to help students succeed. Luckily, she is not alone in this belief.
“We keep focus by keeping the child in the spotlight,” she said. “I have been very lucky that my team has always had the same philosophy and passion. I have the best team in the world.”
Each of ACSA’s 19 job-specific 2009 Administrators of the Year will be featured in EdCal through Nov. 2. They will be formally honored during ACSA’s 2009 Leadership Summit, Nov. 5-7 in Sacramento. Click here for more information or to register for the event.