LAVALLETTE — The School Climate and Culture Team presented a set of action steps to the board of education last week, which have been developed to promote a positive school climate for its stakeholders.
The presentation was given by school counselor Susan Misdom, who explained what the SCCT’s functions are and how the group uses data to “systematically” make the school a positive environment for students, faculty, staff and parents.
“We work together with a committee of parents, staff and admin to create a systematic way to foster a positive environment for everyone in this school,” said Misdom. “We work with data in order to really figure out what we need to do. The Department of Education has a survey that they give to schools in order to collect data from across the board…and we use that to gather feedback from specific groups.”
She told the board and public about some of the conclusions the team reached about fostering this positive environment, explaining that each year the committee collects data from groups including third- to fifth-graders, sixth- to eighth-graders, staff and parents, comparing it to trends in previous years.
“(In) speaking with our student panel…we do want them to have a voice,” said Misdom. “From the student perspective, some of our ideas are to make the homeroom period much more intentional — how they’re using that time focusing more on an SEL (social-emotional learning) perspective…Another area we saw that students really want to have a say in is the lunch menu; one of the biggest complaints we have, for example, is the price of ice cream. We want to have students’ feedback on that and for them to feel they have a say.”
Another step Misdom spoke about was the establishment of a “Happiness Squad” peer mentoring group in the school which would allow for student mentors to promote positivity among the student population, as well as starting a parent book club and other parental outreach programs.
“As much as we want to make them happy, they’re so influenced by their peers; we thought this would be a good area that they could have some say,” she said.
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