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Beyond Academics
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Beyond Academics
Supporting students and families during the pandemic and beyond has meant rolling out programs and resources that address social-emotional wellness.
Academics are just one aspect of the school experience, and the last 18 months emphasized this for the Lakewood City School District. From meal programs to wrap-around mental health services and internet connectivity, the schools support families and have created new roles, programs and tools to be that partner families can depend on at any time.
“It’s the thing that families really rely on, and we were able to keep those up and running through it all,” says Christine Palumbo, the district’s assistant superintendent. “It was important for us to look at our role as doing much more than providing academic content.”
In fact, Lakewood’s evolving model that provides comprehensive social-emotional supports in the school setting will be presented at the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) Capital Conference in November. Last school year, the district added a student wellness coordinator who will pull together all of the counseling and mental health services. Those include a partnership with Cleveland Clinic with a space inside the high school. There, students can access a licensed social worker and nurse practitioner. The district received a federal grant in partnership with the Three Arches Foundation to bring on a student navigator who works in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic adolescent psychologist, who also sees students at the high school.
Elementary buildings have student wellness specialists on staff, and the middle and high schools have counselors on board. “The pandemic highlighted the critical role of those counselors,” Palumbo says.
The district’s meal program offers breakfast and lunch, and grants through the Educational Service Center allowed for offering Giant Eagle gift cards to families in need. And to address the digital divide and lack of internet access some students faced during pandemic with e-learning and remote learning, the schools partnered with PCs for People to get hot spots for students to take home. Even while students were not in the building during the first semester of the 2020-21 school year, those who needed WiFi access could go in for this and in-person support as required.
Aside from bolstering mental health and counseling services — which are in place and here to stay — the pandemic fast-forwarded the district’s e-learning program. Prior to March 2020, Lakewood offered e-learning at the Franklin School of Opportunity, its alternative program. “We probably had one student over the course of several years take advantage of it,” Palumbo says.
“But with the pandemic, we recognized there would be a much greater need for students to have the option to work from home online, so we worked with the Northeast Ohio Educational Services Center to engage with them to use LinkedIn Learning,” Palumbo explains.
LinkedIn Learning is 100% online and asynchronous. The K-5 students enrolled in LinkedIn Learning for the 202122 school year will report to the building once a week to meet with their teachers. In grades 6 to 12, the district offers Edmentum and Apex e-learning, which is also asynchronous and unlike the district’s remote learning students Zoom in with teachers and use tools like Google Classroom.
At the start of the 2020-21 school year, students were remote or e-learning; and by second semester, the buildings opened with health and safety protocols for hybrid learning. Students were in classrooms some days and learning remotely others. By the fourth quarter, all students who opted for inbuilding were welcomed back five days a week.
“It was like pivoting on a dime — ,” Palumbo says, optimistic about the 2021-22 school year, enhanced services and a full toolbox of resources to support students and families. “We learned that our teachers are incredibly dedicated, hardworking and resilient.” — Kristen Hampshire
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