Banning USD Talks Building Assets, Reducing Risks Program

BANNING, CA —Banning Unified School District officials and local Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) coordinators gathered at a recent Real Talk Podcast to share about the program and how it is helping raise the bar for Banning area middle school and high school students.

Banning High School BARR Coordinator Kelly Daly and Nicolet Middle School BARR Coordinator Sarah McComisky stepped forward to show what the program is doing in the Banning area.

According to the website, BARR (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) was founded in 1999 and has become a proven model that aids students in having the best academic outcome, especially for low-income and minority students. With the supervision of Daly and McComisky and the eight pillars of the BARR program, teachers are starting to integrate the full picture of each student's life into their education, meeting their needs to help them get the most out of their academic experience.

In Banning, BARR has been in place since 2019-20, derailed briefly during the pandemic, the program is at last hitting its stride. In the podcast, Daly spoke about what BARR is doing at the high school.

"With BARR, we are looking at the whole student. We're not just looking at grades." She works with teachers already on staff to train them on social and emotional skills and extends beyond academics to allow students to build meaningful connections.

Now that the program has reached its fifth year, both Daly and McComisky believe it improves all aspects of student life. The district has incorporated all sixth-graders and ninth-graders.

The district's motto is "It Begins with Me," which resonates with both BARR leaders, according to the podcast.

For the sixth graders, students and teachers are encouraged to get to know one another away from the classroom, such as at a recent rootbeer float party held recently. At that event, teachers picked a student who also invited a friend, according to McComisky, who said this was an accomplishment for the program and was just another step to gaining traction with teachers.

"Right now, we're focusing on doing 6th grade right," Komisky said. "If we want something to be bigger, we need to get it done. I'm excited to see where we can get BARR to in our district."

For Daly, she knows if she does the program as it is written, "I know that our students will step up. We have a long way to go, and change takes time, post-pandemic. With this program, I know the 'it' is this program. And we can get this done."

Listen to the full podcast here: