My Monthly Column – August 2022

 Supporting students and staff for a successful new school year

By Xavier Botana

As August draws to a close, I’m hopeful that everyone got a chance to unwind this summer and is ready to start the new school year with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and purpose. At the same time, I’m also mindful that this year follows an incredibly difficult 2021-2022 school year. That’s why one of our key priorities this year will be redoubling our efforts to support the significant mental and behavioral health needs of our students and educators. That will help ensure a safe and successful 2022-2023 school year.

Challenges of the last school year included COVID surges, labor shortages that pushed everyone to the limit in their jobs, and middle school students giving voice to concerns about racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic experiences in our schools. Stress levels were high.

That’s why the Portland Board of Public Education on June 21 approved investing nearly $1 million in federal COVID-related funding for social emotional learning and supports for students and staff.

Among steps we are taking is responding to the clear feedback we have received from school staff that one of their biggest needs is the need for support for student behavior health. This fall, we’ll be expanding from two to four the number of the district’s full-time board-certified behavior analysts. Those professionals study the behavior of students – including those with developmental disabilities and emotional or social issues – and work with teachers and others to create plans to address those issues. 

We’ll also be adding social workers at East End Community School, Rowe Elementary School and Deering High School’s Breathe day treatment program and expanding the half-time social worker position at Deering’s program for recent immigrants with interrupted learning to full time. In addition, we are adding a clinical services director to supervise and support the district’s growing social work team so that they can most effectively do their work.

At our secondary schools, we’ll be doing additional training, consultation and coaching in multiple areas. They include positive behavior interventions and supports or PBIS, a proactive approach to improve school safety and promote positive behavior, de-escalation techniques, and restorative discipline practices. We also will continue working with Maine Seeds of Peace – a nonprofit that works with youth and educators to help develop skills and relationships to work across lines of difference to create more just and inclusive societies – to assist us in tackling the issues our middle school students protested last spring.

Our educators too are in need of support after this past difficult school year.  Our plan includes paying for educators to tap into a pool of resources to support their social emotional needs connected to their roles as educators. Examples could include The Healing Schools Project, which partners with schools and school districts to prevent burnout and improve working conditions; The Teacher Sanctuary, a virtual retreat center for educator restoration and reflection; RISE Kripalu, a program designed to impact individual and organizational performance through yoga and mindfulness-based practices; and other restorative experiences led by Portland Public Schools educators.

The 2021-2022 school year was very hard. I am grateful to our amazing staff for enduring endless shifts in direction, staff shortages and countless pressures of all sorts. I also want to appreciate the patience and grace of our families and students who also endured those same hardships from their vantage point. We got through it by working together. By continuing to do that, I know that we can make the 2022-2023 school year a successful one.