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The Mountain View Whisman School District has adopted a new social emotional learning curriculum to implement districtwide next school year, after piloting two options in recent months.
The board voted 5-0 at a Thursday, May 29, meeting to adopt CharacterStrong as the district’s SEL curriculum, as well as Panorama as an SEL data management tool. The district will also continue to partner with Project Cornerstone to provide additional resources.
The vote was in line with the recommendation from a committee of teachers, counselors and parents who reviewed curriculum options this school year.
Implementing an SEL curriculum is meant to help students “learn essential skills to navigate social, emotional, and academic challenges, both in school and beyond,” according to the district’s website. These skills include decision-making, self-regulation, self-awareness and empathy.
At the elementary level, the plan is for schools to set aside 30-45 minutes per month for explicit instruction from the CharacterStrong curriculum, according to Director of Health and Wellness Karin Jinbo, who initially presented the plan at a May 8 board meeting. School counselors would be primarily responsible for delivering these lessons, but teachers who are ready to lead the lessons could also do so, district spokesperson Shelly Hausman told the Voice.
All elementary school teachers will also be expected to use at least one SEL “practice or activity” each week, which would be embedded into their existing lessons, Jinbo said. These SEL elements could be things that teachers already do in the classroom, such as morning meetings, “brain breaks” or other community-building activities, Hausman said.
At the middle school level, rather than carving out time for explicit lessons for all students, the schools would screen students three times per year. Those screenings would cover both SEL topics and “basic mental health questions,” Hausman said.
The results of the screenings would then be used to identify students who would benefit from brief intervention using CharacterStrong modules, as well as students who should be referred for mental health services, Jinbo said.
“The objective of screening is to ensure that the students in need of SEL instruction, brief intervention, or counseling intervention receive it,” Hausman wrote in an email.
Like at the elementary schools, middle school teachers would also be expected to embed at least one SEL practice or activity per week.
The district’s plan comes with a roughly $140,000 price tag, which encompasses CharacterStrong, Panorama and Project Cornerstone.
Last week, the board approved a three-year contract with CharacterStrong for a total cost of $92,190.60, as well as a one-year contract with Panorama for $35,000. A $12,705 contract with Project Cornerstone is expected to come to the board for approval this month.
At last week’s meeting, one member of the public spoke on the SEL curriculum, advocating for the district to instead enter into a one-year contract with CharacterStrong and then evaluate if it’s worth continuing. The commenter also raised concerns about the student screening data, noting that mental health information is sensitive and advocating for an opt-out process.
The district plans to give parents the opportunity to opt out of the middle school screening, intervention and referral process, according to a staff presentation from the May 8 meeting.
At that prior meeting, there were three public commenters, two of whom brought up concerns about the curriculum adding another thing to teachers’ plates and taking time away from other lessons.
District staff acknowledged that there are time constraints, particularly at the middle school level, which prompted the recommendation to use a screening process that’s largely run by school counselors.
In recent years, Mountain View Whisman schools have adopted a variety of programs to address social-emotional needs, Jinbo said. By selecting CharacterStrong, Jinbo said that it would become the primary program at all schools, with any other SEL programs considered supplemental.
