Skye Thompson describes herself as a pit bull. She is relentless when it comes to working on behalf of disadvantaged students in the Russellville School District.
Thompson has a dual role — she’s the human-services worker and the homeless coordinator for the district.
“I primarily do it for the kids because at the end of the day, it’s really just about the kids. It’s about the moms, too — or the moms and the dads — but the majority of my caseload is single moms.”
Thompson, 41, said she grew up with a hardworking, loving single mother who spent long hours at her job, so Thompson’s grandparents and aunt and uncle raised her primarily. Thompson, who has an 18-year-old daughter, has been a single mother since her divorce 17 years ago.
Although she described her childhood as “wonderful,” Thompson said she can relate to some of the struggles the families she serves are going through. Thompson said she has been on food stamps, and she still works two jobs to make ends meet, also serving as a caretaker to a disabled young woman.
Thompson said that after she graduated with honors from Dover High School, she broke her family’s heart by joining the Army.
“I was always kind of a rebel,” she said. Thompson, who was married, was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, with the 82nd Chemical Co., where she was a chemical-operations specialist.
She became pregnant in 1997, and prior to being deployed to Korea, she made the “life-changing decision” to get out of the military rather than leave her baby.
She moved back to Russellville in 1998 to be near her family and was divorced in 1999. However, she was a member of the 392nd Chemical Co. Army Reserve and received an honorable discharge in 2005.
“I decided it was time for me to make something of myself,” she said. Thompson started attending Arkansas Tech University in 2000 and majored in rehabilitation science.
“I knew from an early age, whatever I wanted to do with my life, that it was something dealing with giving back,” she said.
While she was at Arkansas Tech, she started working for Friendship Community Care and took a developmentally delayed teenager into her home, and the woman still lives with Thompson.
In 2005, Thompson started substitute teaching for the Russellville School District, particularly in a credit-recovery center for students at risk of not graduating — and she found her niche.
The principal at the time, Alan Nolan, told her about the human-services-worker job, and Thompson was hired in 2008. Although the funding for the job was discontinued, the district kept the position, she said. Thompson added the homeless-coordinator position in 2013. She also went back to school and earned a master’s degree in college personnel in 2011 because she thought she would like to teach in higher education.
Thompson is on a 190-day contract, but she would like more hours because the work is never-ending, she said. “My phone never stops ringing,” she said. Thompson gives her cellphone number to every family.
“My boss appreciates everything I do, and she’s fabulous,” Thompson said.
Bridgette Work, director of special services, said she definitely appreciates Thompson.
“Skye has a wonderful work ethic. She’s very, very reliable, not just for us in the department, but also for the families,” Work said.
She said Thompson is “readily accessible to anyone throughout the day and evening” to help families in need of assistance. “She does go above and beyond outside the scope of what a typical employee would do,” Work said, adding that Thompson helps families not just with immediate needs, “but she builds a plan of success for a longer period of time.”
Work said Thompson is an advocate for students, making sure they have what they need to get to school, whether it’s clothing or getting a family’s electricity turned on.
“Many times, she’s the mediator between the teacher and the student when things are not going ideally,” Work said.
Thompson’s days start at about 7:30 a.m., and she makes 30 to 40 home visits a week for both of her positions.
The worst situation she’s seen, which is burned on her memory, involved two siblings with severe head lice. The parents refused to meet with school officials, so Thompson gathered bottles of lice shampoo and went to the home. A stench that made her nauseous came through the closed door.
The children’s baby sitter, an older woman, let her inside.
“Immediately, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were probably 50 or more bags of trash in this trailer — oozing — I guess the dogs had punctured holes in this trash; it was all over the carpet. There was nowhere to sit. Stuff was all over the couch; there was nowhere in the kitchen to prepare food,” she said.
Thompson went down the hallway and looked in the little boy’s bedroom.
“There were dog feces all over his toys, all over the wall and in his bed,” she said. “I had never seen, and have never since then, seen anything so disturbing.”
In large part because of Thompson’s determination, the children were ultimately removed from the home, and the family later moved out of the district, she said.
“That’s the hardest part about this job; you get so emotionally attached to your families and your kids. It’s a roller coaster every single day. You wish you could do more,” she said.
“I deal a lot with truancy; if kids are out for X number of days, I go do welfare checks to find out why,” she said. “I’ve gone to court before to see what is recommended for a child. I participate in services through our local counseling agency, Counseling Associates. I work very closely with DHS (the Department of Human Services). I tell people I have them on speed dial because since the Affordable Health Care Act, I have a lot of families who have applied for Medicaid.”
As homeless coordinator, Thompson has to keep in contact with families during the school year to verify where they live. Some are living in shelters or motels; others are “doubling up” and living with other families, she said, or live in substandard housing, with no electricity or running water.
She had 130 students identified as homeless last year, and those are just the ones who voluntarily fill out a form provided by the school.
Thompson has a budget through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act to provide services to those students throughout the year, including school supplies and paying for eyeglasses, doctor’s visits and even buying groceries for families.
“I do that all the time; I spent $5,000 last year on groceries,” she said.
She also spent $5,000 on hygiene items, but thanks to a hugely successful hygiene drive by Because We Can, an Arkansas Tech University organization, Thompson said, she will be able to buy more clothing and shoes this year.
“I’m involved with these students pretty consistently. With that being said, I’ve been known to drop the ball, and I feel bad. This is a hard job, and I’m not even going to lie; there are days I go home, and I feel like I haven’t done enough,” she said.
Resources are limited, and the need is overwhelming, she said. Teachers often reach into their own pockets to help children, as do churches, she said.
“I’m extremely blessed. There aren’t very many churches in this town that ever tell me ‘no,’” she said.
The success story that immediately comes to mind is a single mother with a school-age child and a brand-new baby. The woman had moved to Russellville after leaving her abusive husband.
The woman lived in a government-assisted apartment and was “just really, really struggling,” Thompson said. “The two of us put our heads together.”
Thompson helped the woman get a job at a fast-food restaurant. “I’ll help anybody if they’re really trying.”
Seven years have passed, and the woman is a manager at that restaurant and has her own apartment, a car and a daughter who graduated from high school.
“She’s making it,” Thompson said. “That is what this is all about.”
Thompson said she is well aware of the stigma associated with poor people.
“There are a lot of poor people who got that way not really by choices; they’ve had some bad experiences — whether it be a sudden death, bad divorce, loss of employment — and why are we taking it out on them? You have people who look down on these people. Does that mean we’re not supposed to help them?
“What I do tell these mamas that I’ll try to help is, ‘I want you to look at myself and where I was and where I am. At one time, I was you — young, divorced, scared to death,’”
she said.
However, Thompson said, unlike many of the people she services, she never got addicted to drugs.
Although a mother may be on drugs, “does that mean we turn a blind eye to her kids? The kids didn’t ask to be in that situation,” Thompson said, her voice rising.
“As educators, we expect [underprivileged students] to show up with a smile on their faces, all their homework completed, expect them to stay on green [behavior cards] all week, expect them to get all A’s … and show up with clean underwear and socks. We have kids in our school district [whose families] don’t even have a washer and dryer or a vehicle. We’ve got babies [whose homes] don’t even have running water. We’ve been known in this school district to give baths. We expect these kids to go to school and learn? Not only do we expect these kids to go to school without a bath, … kids start picking on them — ‘Ooh, these kids have bugs in their hair.’ That child gets sent home to an already-filthy home; it is a vicious cycle.”
Thompson said her goal is to change attitudes of people in the community about poor people and bring awareness to child hunger. She is a member of the board for the River Valley Food for Kids and Help Network.
“I want to change the mindset of those that have always judged that population. Quit always thinking that it’s laziness. Quit always thinking and assuming it’s because this mama doesn’t have a job. Quit always assuming she doesn’t care for her kids. Maybe it’s because mama has mental illness; maybe it’s because mom’s going through a bad divorce. We never know what goes on behind closed doors. How about we take these broken kids who are really, really going through things at home and just love them anyway and show them something different?
“There are a lot of kids who are not getting what they need at home. That part breaks my heart because I’m a mom. I’m a mom first, and I know what I give my daughter every day.”
Despite it all, Thompson said, “I love my job.”
Does she believe she makes a difference in the students’ lives? “Sometimes,” she said, sighing. “Sometimes.
“I think I continue to do this job because I’ll be damned if I allow society to beat these kids. These kids are our future, and it really, really pulls at my
heartstrings to see these babies’ cycle. It bothers me; it really does. I think that’s why I’m so passionate about what I do; these kids don’t have anybody fighting for them.”
No, they have at least one.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.