Mid-cycle Program Review: Wellness (30 minutes)

Transcript (~24 min @ 1:00:46)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:00:41 Speaker 7: your update thank you next up on the EP&P agenda is the mid-cycle program review for wellness at this time Madam Superintendent I believe I saw Mr. Fogarty and Dr. Adams

▶ 1:00:53 Speaker 6: So again, please join us. Thank you, Mr. Selm. As you know, we review every content area in the district on a rotating basis. Reviews overlap, it's a two year process and they overlap. Wellness has just completed year one, and they're about to begin year two with a final report to the committee in June.

▶ 1:01:20 Speaker 9: All right, thank you very much. So I'd like to start by thanking our committee of volunteers. representatives from each level the elementary the middle school and high school wellness department they've given up some afternoons did a little soul searching self-assessment looking at the curriculum and structure instruction evaluation how everything's lining up how we serve in the kids and they presented that back to the committee as a whole so that that was the first step in our progress in our state last year so with that we going a little more deeper this year with the surveys of Terrence those went on a couple weeks ago and we're surveying the teachers again this is a more private opportunity for them to express themselves and also student surveys are going out as well so those surveys will be recently went out last week so hopefully we'll have some great responses we'll see how this information lines up with the YRBS we'll see how you know this is going and we look forward to it we're going to measure that with the essential questions we came up with four questions to guide the collection and analysis of the data how does the physical education and wellness program impact the social mental and physical well-being of students how are the wellness curriculum instruction assessment aligned vertically and horizontally how well does physical education and wellness instruction curriculum and assessment adapt to the needs of all students how well does the program meet the learning needs how has the physical education wellness curriculum adapted to the changing social landscape of the community so we look forward to getting these results and sharing this

▶ 1:03:13 Speaker 3: information with you you'll see in the packet we provided a timeline of our activities from last year which included as mr fogarty said each grade level presented their curriculum instruction and assessments we planned and developed surveys that are going out this fall we also plan in january our site visit we've done this with all of our program reviews where we invite neighboring districts to come for a full day teachers educators administrators to spend a full day with us and they visit all the classrooms get visited as many as possible they meet with students in focus groups they meet with teachers and gather input in it by the end of the day they give us feedback and we write up that feedback as part of our report it's one of the most powerful pieces because it actually provides a check on much of what we've said they then provide us feedback and say oh take a second look at that we're not sure we saw that or we saw this and you should celebrate this too so we welcome that opportunity and that group also sees the beginning preliminary draft of our report and the end of the process is an action plan based upon looking at all the all that data that we've collected about the program developing an action plan that will last for the wellness program for two to three years coming about ways that we can address any needs that we found in the report so at this time we have no recommendations or any budget impact when we look forward in June to coming back with a full report or somewhere along there in the summer we also as our practices we end one program review and we're in the middle of one we begin the next one so our last remaining discipline that we have not done this program review process with is fine arts so we'll begin that process in january we decided to not start in the middle of the holiday season and the many activities so we're going to start in january and we'll meet once a month through the winter and into the spring to get the process started and we think we can get a good head start enough to get the process going this

▶ 1:05:41 Speaker 6: winter and spring yes please so two things you heard us refer to it at the last minute with the YRBS this coincides with the state's rewriting of the comprehensive health curriculum it's the first time the state has rewritten the comprehensive health curriculum since 1999 and so this is this is just you you know, fortuitous that we will have that hopefully at the same time that we finish this. And we can incorporate the changes that will be coming from the new comprehensive health curriculum into whatever action plan we have. The other thing that it has been three years since the Department of Health was able to underwrite the PRIDE survey for us. Some of you may remember the PRIDE survey is a survey that we would do with the city every other year. One year we would do the YRBS, the next year we would do the PRIDE. They had enough money in the grant this year. I met with Kathy Guevara yesterday, and we're going to do the PRIDE survey grades five through 12 again this year. The PRIDE survey is a survey of the parents. The YRBS is a survey of our students. The PRIDE survey is a survey of our parents to see if they know as much as they think they know about those issues that are touching our children's lives in terms of substances, behaviors, and other matters. So we will be getting that out within the next couple of weeks. Kathy and I finalized those plans yesterday. And that is also important information. While we're not necessarily responsible for educating the parents, Kathy Guevara and I have talked about how that informs the Department of Health and ability to provide education programs across the city as well so thank you very much at this time

▶ 1:07:40 Jennifer McAndrew: i open the floor miss mcandrew thank you so much for being here um and for this update i know that these comprehensive program reviews are very time consuming and i think it's one of it is a very important thing that we do with this eye to continuous improvement i appreciate all of your work and this update i have two questions you mentioned and it's on the timeline the site visit with other districts that come and sort of assess us and give feedback do we also seek out what other districts are doing in these do we have a way to learn about particularly looking at the yrbs results and what the different responses on some of those sexual health related responses do we go to other districts and see what their programs are like sure

▶ 1:08:27 Speaker 9: there's a whole list serve of all the schools in eastern massachusetts that constantly we're looking to have a focus group in this particular area can you come by they'll give dates times opportunities are there people have taken advantage of those as far as ybs i mean certainly we're in constant contact with the other 11 schools within the league and their information is shared as well but there are groups that meet quarterly and we go over all of this information

▶ 1:08:59 Speaker 3: i think we've also tried to take advantage of we belong to the middlesex partnership that provides health related professional development and i think often at those sessions we hear other things that other districts are doing and that are showcased and so we try to take advantage of as many of those opportunities and sending staff to some of those statewide opportunities that allow for some of that exchange and that certainly was part of our discussion we also participated we're in the second year of a grant through seam which i can't remember the name of at the moment do you remember the name of the great project here maybe no it's escaping me from it it's a grant from the district attorney about health curriculum for middle school students so we've learned a lot about health at education in the same collaborative districts and models of health programming and have used that information and that came up certainly as

▶ 1:10:07 Jennifer McAndrew: part of our review thank you just one more question if i may for now um and given the superintendent's comments especially about the updates coming from the state to the health curriculum health wellness curriculum and the fact that this program review is going on how do you anticipate communicating the results of what you recommend and changes that may be coming

▶ 1:10:32 Speaker 3: out to the wider community yeah so we've um we've as we develop the action plan a big part of the action plan will be how do we respond to the health curriculum and how aligned i'm pretty confident as we look at as we even look at our fine arts and we new curriculum standards and our social studies curriculum standards we will have quite a bit of work to do around alignment of curriculum and developing new curriculum to meet the needs meet those standards and we'll have to do certainly that work with the wider community as well to share that information with families thank you I know families will

▶ 1:11:12 Jennifer McAndrew: be interested in hearing what's coming in this area so thank you mr. Ozzie

▶ 1:11:20 Speaker 5: Thomas please it's exciting you're doing this review I'm also wondering because I I wasn't here at our last meeting, how the review of the YRBS data is impacting what you're going to do with the wellness review. So what jumped out at you? What are you concerned about? What are some targets for resources and supports that are very clear to you from that recent data?

▶ 1:11:50 Speaker 9: So with that, we discussed that at length at the previous meeting, but that data just doesn't sit on a shelf. That's something that we talk about at department meetings on a regular basis, individual meetings with different teachers at the different levels and we want that to be a live and breathing document that we're looking at this and using it to project where we're going to be. Where are we missing? Some of the things that may have gone up, you know, individual statistics, what are we looking at? Obviously the vaping was off the charts but something that was, that struck out to me was the texting and driving piece. We spent a lot of time on that four years ago, six years ago, and now that's back up. But we spent more recently a lot of time on vaping. So we've got to stay true to our values and make sure we're hitting all topics to, you know, give great information to all the students in all facets of the health domain. So we're using that information to see where we're spending our time and our resources to address the concerns.

▶ 1:12:55 Speaker 6: So again, may I? Please. So again, an update that I received. The state has received a two-year anti-vaping grant from the National Library of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It's $50,000 over two years. And there are two committees of professionals, both educators and in the medical and law enforcement fields. And they are in the process of writing a six to 12 curriculum that will focus on the best practices on anti-vaping. But I don't expect that we will see that for another two years. So in the meanwhile, we will have to continue to work on our own curriculum and those efforts. But there will be a state-issued curriculum coming in that area as well. Beyond what Steven mentioned about the vaping and the texting while driving, I think Ms. Driscoll mentioned it when we talked about the YRVS last week, that the ongoing problem in Melrose is with alcohol. And the fact that we are often in a situation where it's sanctioned. And I think that is something that is beyond the schools, and That is something that we need to work with the city on, on how we address that. The city has a rather strong, what's it called, madam, madam? Social. Social host. Host, social host law, but I have not seen much activity around it recently.

▶ 1:14:34 Speaker 5: They have served warning letters.

▶ 1:14:36 Speaker 6: They have served warning letters, good. So, but I think that is another effort that needs to continue to tension.

▶ 1:14:45 Speaker 5: you know the vaping problem has become such an issue so quickly I work in high school myself so I know how hard it is I'm wondering how early on you're beginning to try to prevent it from happening because it's happening really really early and often in many places so can you give us some idea of how you're trying to target prevention early on

▶ 1:15:05 Speaker 3: so we talked about that and it came up it's now creeping its way into the elementary and fifth grade curriculum and starting to talk to kids about because the kids are bringing it up they know or know of it and discussing having discussions with children about the dangers and explaining to them as early as fifth grade and definitely it is creeped into our middle school curriculum

▶ 1:15:35 Speaker 5: as well it's part of the curriculum I'm also curious about sex education and when you start providing that and whether there's condoms available in

▶ 1:15:44 Speaker 3: schools that kind of thing so we start with fifth grade does discussions around puberty mm-hmm and that starts in fifth grade and that continues into the middle school but really it's it we that begins in earnest in high school tenth grade

▶ 1:15:56 Speaker 9: wellness two is as a whole unit on sexual education that's where they get

▶ 1:16:07 Speaker 5: the most of the information okay I anything else that jumped out those those the things that you're talking about were the things that when I was looking at the YRBS a couple weeks ago the same stuff is jumping out at me were there any other trends that that you are gonna really look hard at with the

▶ 1:16:28 Speaker 9: programmatic review no just trying to look at the whole picture and see what our curriculum looks like how it's matching up with the YRBS and that information that it's sharing with us we want to use those numbers bring those into the classroom talk with the kids this is what you shared with us this is what you're telling us is going on and hopefully build the curriculum to make going forward to support those needs and then the last thing that I was when I

▶ 1:16:53 Speaker 5: was reviewing the data from that was a lot there was a uptick in kind of sadness and hopelessness too so I guess I'm wondering about the curriculum that you're already providing but then what you're thinking about moving towards as

▶ 1:17:12 Speaker 9: you are beginning to figure out next steps so we started last year you know a couple guest speakers came in for a parent series we brought in the NAN project to address the whole high school staffing when you bring in the hopeless and saddlers that's not just Melrose that is that's all over and those are some steps that we saw coming just due to people seeking out help in our own building people that had needs and we're trying to support the teachers as best we can with great information we're trying to support those students with their own needs and the Dan project will come back and speak to all ninth grade classes this November we look forward to that

▶ 1:17:58 Speaker 6: But we've contracted with a group that's going to come in for an eight-week session of seminars with students who self-select to participate in them.

▶ 1:18:09 Speaker 5: And just for the people in the audience and the people at home, the NAN Project is an organization that was created because of a young adult woman who committed suicide. And her family has created this whole nonprofit to try to get people in schools and high schools and college more aware of the risk and try to decrease that tragic outcome. So thank you very much for what you're doing. I really appreciate it. From a social worker to you.

▶ 1:18:37 Speaker 9: Thank you. And we kicked it off with the Mental Health 101. Try to reset it. Get everybody, all of our staff on the same page of where this needle's trending or pointing to. And that was a great start to kick off the year and talk about that, get it in the open. And tons of questions came from the faculty. They were very appreciative of having the opportunity be exposed to that conversation where in the past that was typically done with wellness classes alone but we did that we felt was important enough to do that with the entire

▶ 1:19:07 Speaker 5: group and i know also you're doing a lot more circles in all the schools too and learning about that as our year progresses as we're in more school committee meetings hopefully we're going to get to learn more about that maybe demonstrate some of that so i know you're up to a lot of good things and i'm glad you're studying what you're doing that's always good

▶ 1:19:36 Speaker 2: practice thanks any further well I know mental health is addressed a lot in ninth grade but I've noticed that a lot of times in like older grades like that's when mental health like starts to decrease in students as a whole so maybe addressing that in older students would be helpful as well thank you miss Foley

▶ 1:19:59 Speaker 1: Mr. O'Connell I saw your hand up. Thanks very much Madam Chair. Thank you both for being here as always. We really appreciate it and appreciate the work and certainly appreciate the update on this program review. You know as we're discussing you know the work that you and your colleagues do in the area of health and wellness clearly tackle a lot of issues that come to us from well beyond the walls of our schools these are very much community issues and so with community outreach and engagement in mind I'm wondering if there is or Or might there be an opportunity for our School Wellness Advisory Committee and or our Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition to play a role in our curriculum development or assessment or just in the program review generally? And I ask that not just to get an answer yes or maybe. I mean, it's okay if the answer is no and that that's outside their jurisdiction. and I'm curious if you have any thoughts about that.

▶ 1:21:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that would be, we are always welcome for more audiences for our work. So I think if we can arrange that, that would be a wonderful opportunity for us to hear a different perspective on the folks. We tend to focus on the teacher's work in these program reviews because they're the ones who then have to go back and do that work and the implementation of the actions involved, including the outreach to families and coordination. So, but we're welcome to have a conversation about what are other resources or other views of the curriculum and the instruction from the outside. We find that other views really do inform and make us think deeper about some of what we're doing because we see it from our lens because we're doing the work and sometimes other voices are also helpful.

▶ 1:22:14 Speaker 1: Great, thank you for that. Yeah, I mean, I asked because in my opinion, we don't do that enough as a school committee. We have all these resources, some institutional and some less formal, but they're out there in the community and they have the ability to bring energy ideas and expertise to the table that we don't necessarily have here in the room so I think it would behoove us all of us to make better use of that and I think particularly with regard to the kind of issues again that we're talking about in the realm of health and wellness that perhaps more than all of our areas of study this is one where there really might be an opportunity for a two-way street both in the classroom but out to the community and back again so I just offer that that notion and thank you again very much appreciate it thank you

▶ 1:23:16 Speaker 9: we're fortunate to be in a community that has the Marlowe's alliance against violence the substance abuse coalition prevention coalition that you speak of Maureen Busby is one of the foremost speakers on vaping in the Northeast so we're very fortunate to have these resources here and they're in the building at least once a month if not more and it's it's great to tap into them in their expertise when they are around. Ms. Donahue. To speak more on the

▶ 1:23:39 Speaker 5: mental health issue I know that at the high school and middle school we've implemented those like workshop days where we have opportunities for students to do all kinds of different exploratory activities and etc but I was wondering if maybe that could be an opportunity to focus on mental health or to have discussions about like stress and anxiety in school and ways to combat that because I think that hearing from the students would be effective way to

▶ 1:24:07 Speaker 9: look at solutions sure we're always looking for ideas to fill those days I mean that people offer up certain things is certain agenda items that we would like to get across but I mean this is a great opportunity to build in that

▶ 1:24:21 Speaker 3: direction and i know um both mr merrill and mr best are interested in expanding some of those community days um and making even more frequent so i think that's a great idea you're

▶ 1:24:33 Speaker 6: going to take that to mr merrill grace maybe before would you like one of us to take it to

▶ 1:24:42 Speaker 5: mr merrill i think i prefer that we will do that any further comment from the committee

▶ 1:24:53 Speaker 7: seeing them thank you very much for your presentation and all your hard work on the wellness review program I look forward to the conclusion of this as well as the initiation of the review of fine arts thank you thank you please