At the start of the
2020-21 school year,
Lomond Elementary School teacher
Elisabeth Bates noticed something
different about her first-grade
students. While educators had
anticipated delays in reading and
math skills due to the pandemic,
the lag in social skills was especially
prevalent. It was showing up in
playground disputes, name calling,
and other hurtful behaviors.
“They were a full one to two
years behind where students that
age would typically be socially,” says
Bates. “There were no block parties
or play dates where they would have
learned those skills. I’m a teacher who
has always taught kindness, but I had
to focus really hard on friendship skills
and how to treat others.”
The effects of the pandemic on
social and emotional well-being were
at every grade level, though they
manifested in different ways. Students
at Woodbury and the Middle School
exhibited increased social anxiety,
school avoidance, and conflicts with
others. And at the High School, there
was a significant rise in students who
reported being depressed, feeling
anxious or overwhelmed, and having
thoughts of self-harm.
Not every family was affected in
the same way. While some struggled
to deal with loss of employment, or
48 SUMMER 2022 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
a shift to remote work, others dealt
with the raw grief of losing a family
member to COVID-19.
Shaker students’ behaviors
and symptoms mirrored alarming
national trends. In December of
2021, United States Surgeon General
Vivek Murthy issued a rare public
advisory on the severity of the mental
health crisis facing young people. Data
tracked by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and reported
in the National Survey of Children’s
Health, showed that these problems
pre-dated the pandemic but were
clearly exacerbated by it. In 2019,
13 percent of adolescents reported
having a major depressive episode, a
60 percent increase from 2007. Visits
to the emergency room for children
and adolescents also rose sharply for
anxiety, mood disorders, and self-harm.
A Coordinated Response
While increasing students’ social/
emotional health and well-being was
already a key District goal, the effects
of the pandemic brought it to the very
top of the priority list.
At the start of the school year,
Liz Massey came on board as the
District’s first Supervisor of Student
Wellness and Success. Drawing on
her background as a licensed K-12
intervention specialist, the dean of
instruction for Breakthrough Schools,
and a former social services case
worker, she quickly assessed what
resources were already in place and
what gaps needed to be addressed.
“My initial observations were that
the schools needed consistent access
to social workers and a clear, unified
protocol for risk assessment,” she says.
She got to work identifying the staffing,
resources, and strategies that could
have the biggest immediate impact.
Superintendent David Glasner, the
District’s leadership team, and Board of
Education members worked jointly to
allocate the necessary funds to increase
social and emotional well-being and
learning across all grade levels.
The Shaker Schools Foundation also
made it the funding focus of the Shaker
Schools’ 30th annual fundraiser,
A Night for the Red & White, which
raised nearly $100,000 for expanded
social/emotional learning resources
and programming.
Massey’s first order of business
was to close the coverage gaps
by creating a coordinated social/
emotional learning (SEL) team. “I
created a schedule for the team so
principals could see who was available
to them on any given day,” she says.
Every building now has at least one
dedicated full-time case manager or
school counselor. A school psychologist
is on site at each building at least
one day a week (two to three days at
the Middle School and High School).
And the District continues to partner
with outside agencies as well, with
counseling support from Bellefaire
JCB, Shaker Heights Youth Center, and
the Black Mental Health Corporation.
Licensed professionals from those
organizations work with the staff
in each building to make sure each
student’s needs are met.
They also connect families with
any services they may need related to
housing or food insecurity, problems
with transportation, or access to health
care. Says Onaway social worker
Sarah Felson, “Our job is to remove
any barriers a student or family might
have to being successful and feeling
connected at school.”
Of course, every good team needs a
coach, which is where the District’s four
Positive Behavior Coordinators come in.
As the District’s first Supervisor of Student
Wellness and Success, Liz Massey
coordinates staffing and resources to
meet students’ social/emotional needs.
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE