Education

Reynolds School District implements new curriculum and student support systems

By Sage Van Wing (OPB)
Nov. 18, 2022 1 p.m.

Last fall, Reynolds Middle School in Fairview went back to distance learning for several weeks. But it wasn’t because of COVID. Instead, it was due to disruptive behavior and fights.

Now, the school district has implemented a new social-emotional learning curriculum to help students cope with everyday challenges. Administrators have also hired social workers for each school in the district and have developed community partnerships for mental health services.

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A file photo of Reynolds High School from 2021.

A file photo of Reynolds High School from 2021.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB

“Coming back from distance learning was really hard for a lot of families,” said Candice Vickers, the executive director of student and family services at Reynolds School District. “We had students coming in that didn’t have some of the basic skills that they would have had otherwise. We had a larger number of [kindergarten students] who hadn’t been potty-trained, a larger number of 2nd and 3rd graders who struggled with making friends and being in rooms with that many people.”

Michelle Cardenas, the program administrator for school culture and climate at Reynolds, says at the same time, students came back from distance learning with new skills.

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“They came back righteous — knowing exactly what they want from themselves and what is right, what is wrong and that sense of justice,” said Cardenas. “So social-emotional learning actually honors that sense of righteousness and justice that our students … come to us with.”

The social-emotional learning curriculum is also meant to help students acquire basic life skills that improve their work inside the classroom.

“Our students are really going to struggle to get their needs met in a math class if they don’t know how to ask questions, and if they don’t feel a sense of belonging and if they’re not able to engage with the agency and the responsible decision making that it takes to stay up on the homework and to maintain that progress,” said Vickers. “These are the skills that students need in order to engage with the content before the content even sits in front of them.”

Social workers and community partnerships can also help individual students who might be facing particular struggles in their home life.

“Those social workers are able to really dig down into the root cause of what’s going on for students and families,” said Cardenas. “In addition, the community partnerships help make sure that students from all backgrounds feel accepted at school. Our staff are predominantly white identifying folks, [and] our community-based organizations come in with the affinity spaces necessary to navigate and promote parent involvement and engagement.”

One number the district is looking at to measure the success of these new programs is attendance. That number has dropped significantly statewide, but Reynolds is way below the state average. Regularly attending students last year made up only 40% at Reynolds High School, 38% at the Middle School, and 32% at Salish Ponds Elementary School.

Cardenas and Vickers say recent data shows those numbers improving, with the district schools on track “to get to pre-pandemic levels” by the end of the academic year, according to Vickers.

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