News

We’re in the third year of our work to strengthen how we develop students’ social and emotional skills and get students’ the help they need when they need it 

In Ashlee Sluzewicz’s third grade classroom at Centerview Elementary, and all elementary classrooms in the district, the day begins with a morning meeting. Sounds simple, but there’s more to it than planning group activities, giving confidence boosters and sharing a laugh over the joke of the day. In the morning meeting, Ashlee is working to put her students in the right social, emotional and behavioral mindset to start their day of learning off right.

Developing skills for social, emotional and behavioral health is more important than ever. Every three years, middle school and high school students in our state are surveyed on a variety of topics. This year, 23 percent of Minnesota students reported long-term mental health or emotional problems, a figure that rose 5 percentage points overall since the 2016 survey.

While the figures are concerning, at Spring Lake Park Schools, we’ve invested in evolving our approach. Over the past three years, we have been systematically working to improve how we develop social, emotional, and behavioral health and address student needs as we create a learning environment inviting to all students.

“Our work is grounded in genuine care for each of our students and the belief each student and staff member needs to feel valued, inspired and have a sense of belonging in our school environment,” says Anthony Mayer, director of student services. “By implementing consistent student and staff expectations around how we approach behavior, social and emotional health topics, we’re creating inviting learning communities and self-directed, powerful learners.”

Working our plan

A lot of progress has been made over the last three years to enhance our structures and practices:

• Year one – 2017-2018: We developed common language, beliefs and assumptions around school and classroom management practices, provided clarity around those practices and used our framework to respond to challenging student behavior.
• Year two – 2018-2019: Provided professional learning around proactive and reactive evidence-based practices in the area of social, emotional and behavioral development and partnered with the Lee Carlson Center to provide onsite therapy to students. The Lee Carlson Center is an organization that provides affordable mental health and well-being services for families, children, youth and adults in the community.
• Year three - 2019-2020: We’re continuing everything we started in our first and second years to strengthen the implementation of classroom and student management practices at each school. We’re also deepening our school-based mental health partnership with the Lee Carlson Center including redesigning how students are referred.

“We’ve done a lot of work to strengthen the tools and practices we’re using in the classroom, and we’ve also added staff with specific expertise throughout the district,” says Anthony.

We’ve added roles that include behavior specialist paraprofessionals, behavior specialists, school psychologists, social workers and social, emotional and behavioral instructional specialists.

“The teams in place in each of our schools bring unique expertise and support to our students who need different things at different points in their development,” says Anthony. “Social, emotional and behavioral health – like everything else – is personal. Our focus is on developing skills proactively and finding solutions when there is challenging behavior.” 

Teamwork in our schools

There are many roles in schools that play an important part in developing the social, emotional and behavioral health of our students and responding to students’ needs as they arise:

• Teachers create learning environments in which students feel valued and safe, teach specific routines and behavioral expectations, consistently praise and reinforce expected behavior and immediately address challenging behavior.
• Behavior Specialists work as behavioral “detectives” to uncover the factors that lead to, and sustain, challenging student behavior. Then, they work with teachers and parents to create interventions that teach students new and more appropriate behaviors.
• Behavior specialist paraprofessionals work directly with students and teachers to implement behavioral interventions designed by the behavior specialists. 
• School psychologists work with parents and other staff members to evaluate student needs in the area of social, emotional and behavioral development, and use this information to develop intervention plans. School psychologists also provide individual and small group, short-term solution-focused counseling.
• Social workers connect students and families to community-based resources that support overall well-being. Social workers also provide individual and small-group, short-term solution-focused counseling.
• Social, emotional and behavioral instructional specialists design and deliver social, emotional and behavioral instructional lessons.

The district has also welcomed Danielle McGill, to a new role. Danielle will be our district’s board-certified behavior analyst working across the district to provide coaching, support and professional learning for staff who have social, emotional and behavioral roles in our schools.

Parental partnership

Parents and guardians are critical partners and know best what their child is experiencing.

We’re in this together. We believe all students are curious and capable learners, and despite our best efforts, we know challenging behaviors will still occur in schools. We influence the behavior through our responses, and pattern of responses, to behavior. We’ve equipped staff to respond in the moment and deepened and expanded the supports available to help assess, develop and teach alternative behaviors all in partnership with parents and families. Anthony Mayer, director of student services