Fort Stewart’s Child, Youth and School Services liaison office is taking its education forum online for the first time.
The Department of Defense Education Activity/Liberty County schools forum will be on Facebook from 5-6 p.m. Feb. 21 and will follow procedures used for garrison-level town hall online meetings.
Representatives of the liaison office, Army Community Services Exceptional Family Member Program, Fort Stewart DoDEA schools, Liberty County schools and CYSS will answer questions submitted online.  
The superintendents of both school systems will observe.
Dave Smith, youth education support services director, said the goal of having the forum online is to provide a way for parents to communicate with educators.
“In our face-to-face, onsite forums, parents sometimes would have to get off work to attend,” Smith said. “Transportation and child care could be a problem for them, and the forums were a little bit long. Hopefully, the online forum will make it more convenient for parents who work.
“We want to eliminate as many obstacles as possible, so more parents can participate and we get as wide a range of parental interest as possible,” he said.
Parents are asked to submit questions about school issues that affect all military families or military kids in schools, rather than questions of a personal nature.
“We cannot address personal issues about a particular student or a particular teacher,” Smith said. “But we will do our best to answer all questions of a general nature that are of a concern to our parents.”
To participate in the forum, parents should follow these steps:
• “Like” the Fort Stewart Hunter FMWR Facebook page.
• Click on the “forum” tab at the top of the page.
• Read the “Welcome & Instructions” thread before beginning
• Choose the school district or agency of interest and start writing questions or comments.
For more information, call 767-6533.