Elizabeth Barszcz

“As our school community has faced the current pandemic, we’ve struggled, but we’ve also seen successes shine through the rubble. These successes have inspired our SEL in Action Project, “Nurturing the Whole Family: Building and Strengthening Authentic Relationships for Social, Emotional and Cognitive Health. Over the last few months our relationships with students, parents, teachers and support staff grew in ways we didn’t imagine possible. We took our stay-at-home orders and used them as a time to connect more honestly and deeply with families outside of school on an individual level. We learned that phone calls, Zoom meetings, walks and meeting at the park were comfortable, authentic ways to build connections. This project intends to fuel the relationship sparks we’ve been able to develop during COVID-19, through a whole-school, whole-staff, whole-family approach that connects every student and parent to our school staff members in authentic ways. Personalized, relationship-building is the path forward on our SEL journey.”