OGDEN — The Ogden School District is looking to further fulfill its promise to help those students who are in need.

In that spirit, the district cut the ribbon on teen resource centers at Ben Lomond High School and Ogden High School this week. Both have been operating in some capacity since the beginning of the year, but this week was an opportunity for the community to celebrate their openings.

During the BLHS center’s opening ceremony Wednesday, Ogden Assistant Superintendent Chad Carpenter said that centers like this offer an amazing opportunity for students.

“Our schools constantly meet the needs of our students, whether that’s in the elementary level, junior high or high school,” he said. “When students come to us and they struggle with how to read, we meet their needs and provide interventions. When students struggle with relationships or friends, we strive to meet and help build that capacity in our students. This teen center, today, provides another layer of intervention and support for our students. Some of our students struggle with homelessness and other issues with economic mobility. These teen centers are dedicated safe spaces for our students.”

Said Brynn Murdock of the Ogden School Foundation:

“These centers are made possible because of incredible members of our community who are investing in our students. Each center is a little different, but they all have laundry facilities, showers, food pantries, clothing items, kitchens and then staff to help with academic success and getting connected to other resources in our community.”

Both centers also have study space. The center at OHS has been dubbed “The Tiger Den.”

Murdock said there are also plans in place to keep the centers well-stocked into the future.

“We have our MarketStar Student Resource Center, which is funded all by donations — both monetary as well as in-kind,” she said. “That is our hub-and-spoke model for keeping these centers stocked. It’s really the goodness of our community filling these centers.”

The teen support centers available at OHS and BLHS are hardly a new concept. Ogden School District opened a similar center at Odyssey Elementary School last fall. Several centers have also opened up at schools across the region, including several of the Davis School District high schools. The Davis Education Foundation cut the ribbon on its Teen Living Center — a 16-bed residential facility — on Sept. 12 in Layton.

Murdock said there is communication across different entities to help make these centers the best they can be.

“They’ve created a council for all of the teen center coordinators and staff members to share best practices and what’s worked best and what doesn’t,” she said. “What’s really unique and special is that each center is able to meet their specific needs of students. Even within our district, we have great needs. 70% of our students live below the poverty line, one in 10 experience homelessness here. But even with that, each school’s needs are different, so they’re able to create the resources and cater the approach to the specific student body. That’s where the magic happens.”

She said the focus for Ogden schools, for the time being, is on the operation of its new teen resource centers and that there aren’t any current plans to build a residential facility as was done in Davis County.

BLHS Principal Velden Wardle said Wednesday that the support center fits with the evolving role of schools in modern society.

“So often, people think that education is just reading, writing and arithmetic,” he said. “But in today’s society, with today’s youth, it’s so much more than that. Schools are no longer just places where we teach math, English and science. There is so much more that happens here and this center will be a big part of that for us. It will help us fill all the needs of all of our students — not just the reading, writing and arithmetic, but the needs that students have with social needs, with emotional needs and with their physical needs.”

On Thursday, OHS principal Shauna Haney said the new center is a milestone for the school

“The Tiger Den, which was named by our students, is more than just a physical space,” she said. “It’s a symbol of our commitment to student success and well-being. In this space, students will find academic assistance, mentoring and other essential services aimed at ensuring that no one falls through the cracks.”

In addition to BLHS and OHS, Ogden Technical High School — which opened to students this school year — also has its own teen resource center which was constructed along with the facility. Ogden School District Director of Communications Jer Bates said, presently, there isn’t a plan to hold a similar ribbon cutting for the OTECH resource center.