Education column: New year means renewed commitment to students

The New Year has begun, and resolutions are resounding everywhere.

Despite challenges, most everyone begins the new year filled with hope and resolve, wanting to do better or be better in some way. There's even a government website that documents the most common New Year's Resolutions and provides a considerable array of associated links with tips and “how-to's” to achieve those goals (http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New-Years-Resolutions.shtml).

Included are “eat better, lose weight, get a better education or job, get more organized, volunteer more” and well, you get the picture. One dictionary provides a wonderfully concise definition of resolution as “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” Very simple, but very hard.

Our focus in Clovis Municipal Schools is continually improving our ability to better serve our students. In addition to the regular activities at all of our schools, we also take advantage of other opportunities to reach our students and their families.

One of our Clovis Schools' Federal Programs Department programs, called the Family Leadership Institute (FLI), continues to grow, serving as a model other districts are following. Although initially designed as a multifaceted educational program to empower Hispanic families, it now crosses all ethnic and cultural boundaries and provides the knowledge, tools, and inspiration for strengthening families through building leadership skills and educational support for children as a key to a better future.

Participating families commit their time to attend learning modules held evenings and weekends, as well as committing a certain number of hours in the classrooms of their students enrolled at the Lincoln-Jackson Family Center (LJFC). Assisted by our federal programs staff, which is headed up by Eva Garcia, the modules are conducted by Sylvia Monta