When students walk through the doors of Bethel Elementary School, it might not be their first, or even second new school of the year.
“We have such a large military presence that there are kids coming in and out of the building every day,” said David Reitz, the school’s principal. “When they walk through those doors, they’re coming from all over the world with many different experiences and exposures.”
Located on Langley Airforce Base, BMES has nearly a 100 percent military student population, with the exclusion of some staff children.
With that many students who have families and lives dependent on the ever-changing military placements, a different type of structure, assessment and overall community is cultivated to make sure the students are in a place to succeed, even if they are only at the school for a few months or for a few years.
Reitz said one of most important parts of introducing new students to the school is making sure they feel welcomed and comfortable. He said that’s done through a large guidance presence so students can become involved in school activities immediately.
“When they walk in, our main purpose and mission is to make sure that the family feels at home,” he said.
In some ways, he said, that’s easier because the students are so resilient and used to changing environments that they know how to support each other.
He said he has seen students who console one another better than any adult could when they know their parents have been deployed and he has even seen military students reconnect after being in schools together in other countries.
Those experiences are unique to the students and create a different kind of bond between them.
“They know what the process is like and that’s how they support each other,” he said.
One of the large parts of the mission is ensuring students are receiving the education that best fits their level coming from other schools. That’s why Reitz volunteered the school to pilot the new report card system for kindergarten students, since students at BMES would benefit from a system used across the nation.
Related story: Kindergartners in York County will receive a new kind of report card next year
In addition, one of the ways educational placement is done is by assessing the students as soon as the school knows they will be starting at BMES. The assessments are done by specialists before a child ever enters the classroom in order to determine the student’s academic skills for placement.
Reitz said that takes a lot of time and pressure off the teachers because they don’t have to perform all of those assessments and instead can focus on the student’s abilities.
“I think the teachers have a different mindset than at another [York County] school just due to the fact that tomorrow you might have a new child come in and they have to be prepared to accept them.” he said. “Our teachers are so flexible and prepared with a packet and a smile, ready to start their day with whatever class happens to be sitting in front of them.”
More than just teaching students in a classroom, BMES is a community-focused school where families can walk with their children in the mornings and afternoons and get to know each other through a network of connections. Reitz said it isn’t uncommon for families to reach out to each other before coming to the area to learn about getting settled at the school.
BMES also tries to make the school memorable even when students leave. Outside the school is a rock garden with stones painted by students and every time a student leaves they get to pick out a rock and are given a journal to take with them.
“It’s a socio-emotional community,” Reitz said. “We want to build something that is more than just a place to come to while they’re here, we want them to have something of us when they go other places.”
