SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Dr. David Moss is the new director of African American Student and Parent Services for the South Bend School Corporation. He says his role is to be a liaison between parents and the school corporation - and he wants to hear from you.



"This is going to be a long-term project," said Dr. Moss.



Dr. Moss wants to help connect students, teachers and parents.



"This cannot be done in a year, two years, I would say not even 3 years," said Dr. Moss.



He is just a couple months into his new position with the school corporation. The position was designed to spark student success, especially among African American students.



"One of the things that I saw when I came on board was immediately how disparate, disproportionate the students that were failing looked in terms of their cultural background," said Dr. Moss.



Research shows minority students are getting expelled at alarming rates.



And, as a group, African American students continue to perform the worst on the ISTEP.



Moss is starting his work by focusing on the student-teacher relationship.



"They're really good at helping us, but if you don't try it's kind of hard on their part. But they're decent," said Tyara Wright, a sophomore at John Adams High School.



"The teachers could help us more. There's a lot of students that need help and they don't always get what they need," said Lakara Taylor, a freshman at John Adams High School.



Dr. Moss says he will hold a workshop to refocus on the relationship that's needed for success.



"We're going to have 100 teachers come and this time we're going to ask teachers to invite 2 or 3 of their students to come with them," said Dr. Moss.



Dr. Moss wants to emphasize that a lot of these new programs will help every student, not just African American students.



"If we have good relationship, education is amazing and it happens well. As a matter of fact I would go as far as to say that the material you teach is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what you teach if you have a great relationship with that child, learning will happen," said Dr. Moss.



If you're a parent with input or suggestions, Dr. Moss wants to hear from you.



You can reach him at [email protected] or 283-8308.