Published March 4, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — School officials reiterated the importance of adding two adjustment counselors as part of the fiscal year 2021 budget during a Feb. 25 meeting.
Superintendent Jane Tremblay is requesting a $27,530,266 operating budget for FY21, representing a 6.4 percent increase over FY20’s $25,875,345 spending plan. There were no members of the public who spoke during the School Committee’s public hearing on the proposed budget.
In addition to the two elementary school adjustment counselor positions, Tremblay is also requesting a full-time kindergarten teacher and a full-time paraprofessional for Summer Street School due to increasing enrollment. She has also requested a full-time elementary special education team chairperson, a full-time technology support position and three part-time technology support paraprofessionals. She is also looking to reinstate a middle school media center aide into the FY21 budget after the position was cut from the FY19 spending plan.
Lynnfield Middle School and Lynnfield High School currently have full-time adjustment counselors.
Tremblay collected data about students’ behavioral incidents that required administrator and teacher interventions, which was undertaken by 53 percent of both schools’ educators. She said there were 176 incidents in just one week at both elementary schools.
“It could be a child curled up in the fetal position and sobbing, a student trying to run home, or a student becoming physical with a teacher,” said Tremblay about the various incidents.
Tremblay also requested that educators document how much time students’ behavioral issues were taking away from learning.
“Over the course of one week between both elementary schools, it was approximately 69 hours where a teacher, a principal or a specialist was being taking away from what they were supposed to be doing,” said Tremblay. “There were 94 students at both of our elementary schools who had some kind of a concern or an issue. These are not students who have an individualized education program or a 504 plan. These are general education students.”
School Committee member Phil McQueen said the data reiterates the need for the two adjustment counselor positions.
“We cannot do without these positions,” said McQueen.
Tremblay agreed.
“This is not a blip on the radar screen,” said Tremblay. “This is our new normal and is a real concern in our elementary schools. The teachers who are teaching in our classrooms are extraordinary, and they are going to great lengths to deal with the challenges that students have. But they are not licensed social workers and licensed adjustment counselors.”
Tremblay recently attended a North Shore Superintendents Roundtable meeting, where mental health was once again discussed. As part of that discussion, she learned that Lynnfield is the only district on the North Shore that does not have elementary school adjustment counselors.
“We are behind the times with this,” said Tremblay. “These positions are definitely a need and not a want.”
SEL update
After the School Committee closed the public budget hearing, Huckleberry Hill School Principal Melissa Wyland and Summer Street School Principal Dr. Karen Dwyer gave an update on the social-emotional learning (SEL) goals included in both improvement plans for the 2019-2020 school year.
Wyland said Huckleberry Hill has been holding frequent assemblies pertaining to social-emotional learning. She has been updating families about the SEL goal each month as well. She also said Huckleberry Hill has been holding grade level mix-ups and whole school mix-ups.
“It provides an opportunity for students to make new friends as well as form trusting relationships with adults,” said Wyland. “The kids love it.”
Wyland also said Huckleberry Hill has formed a fourth grade advisory committee.
“The students on the committee miss recess once a week, and they have lunch with us,” said Wyland. “They talk about what has been hard and what we can do better.”
Wyland also said Huckleberry Hill School has trained educators with the Responsive Classroom curriculum framework. She said Huckleberry Hill has been working to celebrate students’ diversity as well.
Dwyer said Summer Street has been implementing mindfulness strategies throughout the school day. She said Huckleberry Hill first grade teacher Jill Quickel was scheduled to give students a mindfulness lesson on Wednesday, March 4.
Similar to Huckleberry Hill, Dwyer said Summer Street is working to celebrate students’ cultural diversity. She said both elementary schools’ PTOs are working together as part of an effort to create common events.
“One event will happen at Lynnfield Middle School, where the fourth grade students from both schools will join together to do teamwork activities,” said Dwyer. “That will help students become familiar with the middle school and it will help students develop connections with each other.”
Dwyer and Wyland said both schools are “on target” with meeting their respective SEL goals.
School Committee Vice Chairman Rich Sjoberg said both elementary schools are trying to “lessen the impact of anxiety and stress” that many students are facing. He asked how the adjustment counselors would help both schools.
“I think that is a fair question because if we are doing all of this, then why are we having so many incidents,” said Dwyer. “When I see students in my office, I tell them let’s breathe first before we talk about the problem. Students understand there are strategies to deal with rage, stress or anxiety, but they haven’t mastered it yet. I feel like we are providing students a foundation and they will. They are learning how to do all of this. If we were not doing all of this, the number of incidents would be increasing exponentially.”
Dwyer said the adjustment counselor positions are “critical.”
“An experienced professional would be able to work with the students who need additional attention,” said Dwyer.
Wyland concurred with Dwyer’s viewpoint.
“Our third and fourth graders have had this program for a few years now, but our kindergarteners and first graders are getting it for the first time,” said Wyland. “It is going to take a lot of practice.”
School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman inquired if social-emotional learning needs to be taught in the same way as English, social studies, math and science.
“Students are going to have triggers throughout the day, and we have to be ready to handle those triggers,” said Dwyer. “It has to be really embedded and integrated.”
Wyland agreed.
“We need the adjustment counselors because we can help a lot of the students, but some students need to work with someone who has been trained,” said Wyland.
McQueen echoed Wyland and Dwyer’s sentiment.
“It’s an intrinsic issue,” said McQueen. “If social-emotional needs are getting in the way, then no learning is happening across the board.”