Below you will find a summary of the questions and comments that were posted by event participants and facilitators when this event ran January 28th - February 1st, 2002.

Many MSCs shared practical strategies for promoting buy-in and cooperation among school personnel. These included the following:

• Start with key leaders, such as the school principal. Obtaining his or her buy-in is critical!

• Clarify your roles and responsibilities for the school community.

• Get to know school personnel, particularly office staff and influential teachers.

• Demonstrate your concern for students and your willingness to help the administration.

• Do your research! Before presenting an idea, have your answers ready.

• Point out how collaboration with your prevention efforts will ease staff members' loads.

• Ask school personnel to take small steps toward participation in prevention efforts and try to link activities to their interests.

• Don't try to do everything at once. If you are working in several schools, focus your efforts on just one. Once you've shown success in one school, administrators from your other schools will recognize the value of what you are trying to accomplish.

• Be patient! Remember that change takes time, and attending to process is important.

• Find creative ways to "sell" your ideas. For example, one MSC offered this example:

  "I recently gave a presentation to the staff at an in-service, and a mini-presentation to the school board. I used a very general approach, as I was dealing with a wide range of familiarity with the subject. I will follow up with a much more in-depth look at our results, including possible solutions or strategies. I made the presentation quite spirited and involved the audience... [I suggest] keeping it simple at first, and gradually ease into the dirt. You will be less likely to lose people along the way."

  I also included handouts (not too many) and, most importantly, a treat! January 21 was National Hug Day, so on little slips of paper I typed: "January 21, 2002. National Hug Day! Support Assets #1-6" and attached a Hershey Hug to each one. Not only did it capture my audience; it also tied into my message!

One MSC described her difficulties obtaining parental buy-in. She wrote: "The parents who have children in the district walk around with blinders on - 'not my community,' 'not my child.'" These are some suggestions MSCs offered for bringing parents on board:

• Make presentations to school and community organizations that include parents, such as the PTA and community service clubs such as Rotary and Lyons.

• Gain the support of staff with children in the district.

• Provide information in parent/school newsletters about who you are and what you do.

MSCs discussed their efforts to connect with other school planning teams and stimulate collaboration and progress. Here's one example:

"Today, I will be attending a management team meeting at one school site and I will ask this team to provide me with more information about the various planning groups throughout the school and how we can arrange meetings for all to come together."

Many MSCs emphasized the value of linking prevention and school reform efforts, and shared strategies for doing so.

• Stress your role as a change agent in relation to prevention as well as overall school reform.

• Identify "sister programs" (e.g., Communities in Schools) that may be in place at your school(s) and recruit key staff from those initiatives to serve on your advisory board.

• Familiarize yourself with state standards, school system policies, state and national education movements, and the different classroom curricula that are being used so that you can demonstrate to the administration and staff how prevention efforts link with their objectives and activities.

• Match prevention program objectives to state standards. This shows teachers that teaching prevention is teaching to the standards.

• Familiarize yourself with the research on effective middle schools so that you can serve as a resource regarding various aspects of prevention, educational programming, and school reform.

• Focus on the value of research-based programming across the domains of prevention and school reform . . . it can serve as a common thread. According to one MSC:

  "I came to this position with a background in teaching middle school. The more I've learned about prevention, the more I see how it parallels education reform. Both emphasize the use of data to identify needs, address needs with strategies that have been researched and found effective, and focus on accountability. Seeing that we have this in common has made me see more of the similarities in what we want to do for and with kids in schools and made me feel part of the bigger picture."

Several MSCs described their methods for developing prevention priorities.

• "[We] reviewed several needs assessments done within the school and by the district. There was also a "wish list," completed by students, teachers, parents, and community supporters."

• "From all the data we collected from both the school and community, we were able to set the priorities. We have had some [people] question the priorities, but the assessment seems to back us up. We do find that when administrations change, so do priorities."

Several MSCs talked about the importance of developing your mission statement collaboratively and sharing it with others.

• "Next week I will meet with the discipline committee to review the data again. Together, we will decide on the priorities and write the mission statement. The staff at this school will not implement a program unless they have been involved in the decision-making process. I was a part of this staff before becoming an MSC and know how they operate. By including them in every step, I know there will be greater chance for success."

• "I like to think of a mission statement as a goal that a school is striving to meet. It states a direction or focus. The school will use resources to meet the "goal." That is why I feel that it is important to share or make known this collaborative statement. Otherwise it is just a piece of paper that is placed in a folder and forgotten about."

Many MSCs described prevention strategies and programs already in place at their schools.

• "Our school has implemented many of the strategies, but some need to be "beefed up" . . . I've printed out the strategies and am going to look at how I can become involved in the programs that we already have in place and then offer support."

• "We have a student assistance program that has launched several prevention strategies: Strengthening Families has been very successful in connecting students and their families to school . . . We've also introduced a life skills curriculum into the seventh grade elective wheel."

Some MSCs described difficulties getting administrators and staff to "let go" of current programs that are not research-based.

• "I find that the problem flows from the top down . . . I am taking small steps in being a change agent, since many of the ineffective programs are supported by the administrators."

• "There are many ancient programs in the middle school where I'm assigned. I take every opportunity I can to ask the program directors for data from the previous year. Of course, most don't have the information."

One MSC shared this strategy for incorporating prevention into the school day:

"In our district we only have middle school health in seventh grade . . . One of our health teachers came up with the idea of using the nine-hour block of time eighth graders have for taking standardized tests to implement an intensive tobacco module for the seventh graders. We have been working to support her efforts and provide resources."