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Date: 5/19/2021
LONGMEADOW – At the May 11 School Committee meeting, Longmeadow Public School District Substance Use Response Coordinator Shelly Warren gave an update on the Longmeadow High School’s climate data report. All high schoolers are given an opportunity to participate in their Wellness classes every March where Warren use standardized questions for comparison to state and national bench marks.
Warren stated, “Our survey started in response to the Massachusetts anti-bully legislation and when we were mandated to collect data about bullying, we really looked at how we can make this about other health indicators as well and broaden the scope a bit. It’s become a survey that the high school uses for multiple purposes all the time.”
This year they expanded the focus on mental health in the wellness classes asking students how severe their stress level is, how able they feel to manage their stress and what do they do to relive stress. They also built a student support services classroom at the high school. One of the positives of the pandemic Warren mentioned is that students are getting more hours of sleep. In 2020, 31.69 percent were getting seven hours while 39.56 percent are getting seven hours of sleep in 2021. Since 2016, Warren pointed out the top three sources for students have remained homework, school work and expectations of self. COVID-19 was rated number 10. The top three ways of relieving stress have remained listening to music, talking with friends and exercise with the addition of streaming in the top three due to COVID–19.
Vice Chair Bronwyn Monahan said, “One of the concerns I have is that for the past six years, homework, school work and expectations of self have been the top three stressors. I was wondering what the school community or School Committee could do to try and change that because that’s pretty significant. I’m wondering what we could do better.”
It led to an ongoing discussion of homework policies, the amount of work students do on an everyday basis and what students go through outside of school. Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea summed up the conversation by saying they have to look at their own practices and how those practices contribute to the overall stress students are experiencing, but also acknowledging that they are a part of a wider culture and this needs to continue to be a community conversation.
At the end of the meeting, the committee amended the motion to approve the use of Federal Stimulus Funds for the positions and other budgeted programs and others recommended by O’Shea and the administrative team. As well as amending the motion to approve the Memorandum of Agreement between the Longmeadow school committee and the Longmeadow Education Association Unit A dated April 27, 2021, regarding a teacher covering an additional virtual language class.