WILMINGTON — Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Health District Coordinator Christine Murray brought the new Social Emotional Learning and Family Engagement Specialists Erin Dunham and Lauren Sabella to present at the School Committee meeting last Wednesday night. The group took the committee through recent Panorama data and the work that they’ve done so far.
Superintendent Dr. Glenn Brand introduced them by saying that he was pleased to see stakes in the ground moving forward with the social-emotional wellbeing of students in mind.
Murray took over from there, beginning with Dunham and Sabella’s credentials and experience. She mentioned that Sabella has more than 15 years of experience counseling families and five years promoting social emotional learning. Dunham has more than 17 years of experience as a case management director for at risk youth with the Department of Children and Families.
The pair are splitting their efforts across town between elementary schools and join up with the middle and high schools. Some of the goals that Murray listed for their efforts included using Panorama data and interventions to support staff and students, enhancing family engagement, strengthening the tiered mental health system support, and supporting staff with social-emotional learning.
Sabella explained that their work over the summer has been centered around transitioning back to school. They held a “Back to School” parent night on Aug. 24 and discussed things like anxiety, routines, and schedules.
They also sent a wellness survey out to caregivers before the start of the school year and received 712 responses. The survey asked questions gathering what families would need to feel supported and what areas of social emotional well-being should be a priority.
The largest issue that they found in the results was anxiety with 50 percent of responses, with social skills as the next highest chosen option at 20 percent. It also asked caregivers to what degree their children are anxious about returning to school. Most answered “not worried at all” while the rest answered some level between somewhat and extremely worried.
Dunham mentioned that the themes they saw from the survey were mainly family-related issues, social and peer-related challenges, and anxiety from COVID-19 or just in general.
They next discussed the use of Panorama to strengthen support by administering a survey for students before the end of last school year. This asked students (or teachers on their students’ behalf) how well they would score themselves in areas like self-management, self-awareness, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, sense of belonging, and social awareness.
This survey had a 72 percent response rate from students grades 4 and up and 99 percent from teachers in pre-k through third grade.
For the younger students, their teachers rated them 51 percent competent with self-management, 47 percent with social perspective, 71 percent with social awareness, and 80 percent with emotion regulation.
Grades 4 and 5 rated themselves 89 percent competent in sense of belonging and 54 percent in emotion regulation.
Grades 6-12 saw 54 percent in emotion regulation, 52 percent in self-efficacy, and 51 percent in social perspective taking.
Murray said that the data from these surveys, and the next iterations of it, will be made available to families. When they trained staff on Panorama, staff expressed the desire to bring social emotional learning into classrooms and identify students who need support and matching them with interventions.
School Committee Chair Jenn Bryson asked if the specialists had checked in with families whose students scored negatively on either survey. Sabella answered that they hadn’t heard of any concerns yet, but students who put in negative scores would be marked red and receive follow-up communications.
Melissa Plowman remarked that she’d like to see initiatives in tier 1 support, possibly looking at red or yellow flags in students who need support. Murray said that they were creating district goals and school goals along with classroom goals for educators.
David Ragsdale asked how horizontal alignment could be possible with the two specialists split between sides of town. Sabella replied that they went this way so that they could follow family lineages as students grow.
“You’re getting our conjoined brain regardless of the side of town,” she continued.
She promised that they collaborate daily on issues, and all of the resources of Panorama are available equally on both sides of town.
Jay Samaha said that he appreciated the mention of a playbook from Panorama to give teachers quick strategies to add into their teaching, adjusted for age, without prep.
He also asked where wellness resources would be for families, and Murray said they were on the Behavioral Health page on the district website.
