SAUGUS — The Wellness Committee discussed whether the town’s school district will retain Second Step, a social-emotional learning program it uses, in the long term at a meeting Tuesday.
Superintendent Michael Hashem said that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is in the process of rolling out a new wellness curriculum, and that the high school’s staff went to a training for it last month.
“They do have the frameworks, and they’re currently at the beginning stages of the rollout, so at some point in the next few months they’re going to tell us what they’re going to prioritize per standard and we’ll go with that,” Hashem said.
Jenna Newhall, a school adjustment counselor at Veterans Memorial Elementary School, asked “how married” the district is to the Second Step curriculum.
She said that she found other curriculums while she was looking for more resources for students in the district.
“Other programs have really good and robust Tier 2, Tier 3 supports and interventions for social and emotional,” Newhall said. “Second Step doesn’t offer that, and not that it’s bad at all, I just didn’t know. Was this like a pilot year, do we think we’ll keep it?”
Hashem said the district is still waiting on DESE’s adoption of a health and physical fitness curriculum, and that the department’s expectation for the district will inform its course of action.
Saugus Middle/High School Assistant Principal Maureen Lueke said that there are many options, and Second Step was initially adopted because it is very intuitive and user-friendly.
Hashem said that DESE is looking for adoption in the near future, but he is not completely sure if that will be achieved.
“There’s some pushback on certain issues,” he said. “I’d be guessing as to what issues. I don’t think it’s to deal with substance abuse, the issues that they’re having.”
Newhall said that she gets a lot of information on the subject of wellness programs from a statewide counselor group on Facebook she is a member of.
She said that in the group, a curriculum called Character Strong kept popping up. She said it appears to be a pre-K to high school program that would offer Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports and interventions.
Newhall did say it is pricier than some of the other programs offered.
“It went into the tens of thousands, or the digital (package) looked like $6,000 to $7,000,” she said. “But I also don’t know if I was getting a quote just for my grade level.”
