By CYRIL REINICKE

Pacific Beach Middle has joined Crown Point Junior Music Academy, and Sessions Elementary as the third Purple Star School in Pacific Beach.

The Purple Star School honor originated in 2019. The Purple Star School designation recognizes that dependents of military service members receive a smooth transition when military services transfer families to new duty assignments and deployments and dependents must change schools.

One of the largest workforces in the United States is the military, with over two million active-duty service members and individuals serving in the National Guard and Reserves. California has the nation’s largest concentration of these service members, and many are parents/guardians of minor children.

In September 2021, California had 162,362 active-duty service members and 55,537 individuals serving in the National Guard and Reserves. California also has 64,293 individuals serving as Department of Defense (DoD) contractors and civilians.

Military-connected students must move whenever their active-duty parent/guardian receives a permanent change of station relocation order. These relocations mean that a military-connected child can expect to change schools between six and nine times in their kindergarten through grade 12 educational career, three times more often than nonmilitary-connected children.

As military-connected students transition between schools, often to different states and countries, they must adapt to varying cultures, school populations, curricula, standards, course offerings, schedules, and graduation requirements. As a result, military-connected students often face unique academic and social-emotional challenges and struggle to stay on track to be college and career-ready.

The California Purple Star School Designation Program (Purple Star Program) seeks to reduce the burden on military-connected students and their families by articulating the most critical transition supports for military-connected students and their families. The Purple Star Program is a way to publicly recognize and designate schools that meet certain requirements and signal which schools are the most committed and best equipped to meet military-connected students and their families’ unique needs.

Crown Point Junior Music Academy, Sessions Elementary, and PB Middle have strategically implemented programs and resources that include:

a.) A designated staff member to act as a liaison between military families and the school to ease military-connected students’ enrollment and acclamation period. Each school also partners closely with Vanessa Marin, the Child and Youth School liaison, at Naval Base Point Loma.

b.) Create and implement professional development to better understand and address the unique challenges military families face.

c.) A dedicated page on the school’s website with easily accessible information and resources for military-connected families.

d.) A transition program to welcome and socially acclimate incoming military-connected students.

e.) Hosting and promoting events that celebrate and honor service members and military-connected students and families, including community members.

The honor of earning the Purple Star School is a three-year designation. This year is the first designation for PB Middle and will be renewed in 2028. Crown Point Junior Music Academy’s initial Purple Star designation was earned in 2023 and will be renewed in 2026. Sessions Elementary was first honored in 2022 and 2025 marks the school’s second Purple Star designation.