Next term, Sarah’s top priority will be meeting the needs of all our students as we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. After a year and half of pandemic learning, the average student is entering the 2021-22 school year with math and reading skills that are about half a year behind where they would have been without the pandemic. Rates of anxiety and depression among children and adolescents surged during the pandemic, and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in indicators of child well-being that Sarah has spent her career trying to close, have grown.
During the coming term, Sarah will focus on ensuring that every Somerville student gets what they need to recover and thrive. She believes we need to:
- Hire enough academic coaches and specialists, mental health professionals, nurses, youth workers, and tutors to meet our students’ unprecedented needs.
- Create more time during the school day for students to process their experiences and receive additional support and differentiated learning,
- Expand access to high quality child-care, out of school time programming, and school-linked social services,
- Deepen the cultural responsiveness and critical consciousness of our staff,
- Improve the cultural relevance of our curriculum,
- Interrupt the school to prison pipeline,
- Diversify our teaching force, and
- Integrate our schools.
With your support in November, Sarah will make progress on these priorities and more!
Please reach out to share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas.