Brown County Schools is working on getting a special designation to show its commitment to families who are connected to the military.

District leaders have committed to working toward the Indiana Purple Star School designation through the Indiana Department of Education.

Indiana Purple Star schools have a point person to serve as the liaison for active duty service members, veterans, and students and families.

Purple Star schools will have a dedicated web page with resource links and recognition for service members, veterans, students and families. Every school in the district also would be required to have a public display recognizing members of the military, as well as “a military recognition event that demonstrates a military-friendly culture.”

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Purple Star schools also will guarantee military service members and their immediate family members job interviews if they meet the minimum qualifications for job openings in the school.

Brown County High School history teachers Alecia Adams and Emily Lewellen are leading the effort. They are the advisers to the high school’s History Club, which works often with local veterans’ organizations and helps to put on the district’s Veterans Day program.

The teachers attended the Brown County School Board of Trustees meeting on March 5 where the board was asked to approve a resolution in support of military families.

Superintendent Laura Hammack said Adams and Lewellen reached out to her to say they would handle the application process to designate the high school as a Purple Star School. “Then, a few days later, they said, ‘Hey, it seems like we could probably not do this just at the high school, but we could do this districtwide.’ All of our principals were on board with this notion,” Hammack said.

Lewellen said the History Club has developed a close relationship with veterans in Brown County.

As far as public display ideas, “One of our History Club members came up with an idea of perhaps including, like, an honor of one veteran every year, then at Veterans Day, having a documentary, maybe surprising the veteran with a documentary the History Club members would make,” Adams said.

Adams said they also considered working with each school to recognize former students from that building who are also service members.

“If a student came to Van Buren and graduated, that student’s picture would be here at Van Buren to show when you’re in third grade, you, too, can be a service member,” Adams said.

The local veterans are “extremely supportive and extremely excited” about the designation, Adams said.

“When we met with the veterans this morning, they wanted to come tonight to show how excited they were for this partnership,” she said.

One of the final requirements for the designation application was to have the school board approve the resolution in support of military families.

More than 19,000 Hoosiers have actively served their nation away from home, and more than 20,000 children in Indiana are members of military families, according to the resolution.

Children in military families often move frequently, and some children could experience between six to nine different schools until they graduate high school, the resolution states. Military families also go through frequent separations, deployments and reintegration, which can cause other challenges for those families.

“Brown County Schools is committed to meeting the unique needs of all students, especially those of military youth,” the resolution states.

“Brown County Schools offers our gratitude and support for all military personnel, their families and veterans.”

Purple Star School designees were supposed to be notified by Aug. 14. The schools who receive the designation will be honored by the IDOE this fall.