November / December Message from the Superintendent

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mental Health

Superintendent’s Message

In the midst of the holiday season I want to wish you all a peaceful and joyous time with your families and friends. Enjoy your holiday celebrations -- but please remain cautious so we all can return to school in January healthy, rested, and ready for an exciting 2022.

Supporting Students in Challenging Times

I continue to be proud of Carlsbad Unified’s many successes, particularly in light of the obstacles that our resilient staff, students, and families have confronted over the last many months. 

I am especially proud of the actions that our district has taken to address social and emotional stress that students have faced as a result of the pandemic.  

Our mission is educating students; but we know that students, when grappling with undue pressures in their lives, can have trouble focusing on school and therefore might not learn as effectively.  In recent times our students have had to deal with quarantines and distance learning -- and sometimes with family issues such as a lack of childcare, lost jobs, divorce, illness, and death. Some students have been burdened with anxiety, fear, anger, and loneliness.  Even returning to school has been stressful for some students, as they adjust to making new friends, getting along in the classroom, or socializing in school activities.

One of the key measures taken in Carlsbad Unified to support our early learners was the hiring of five elementary school counselors -- a brand new position in our district.

“As students have returned to campus from distance learning they have needed additional support to readjust to in-person classroom instruction and social interactions on the playground,” said Kelly Elementary School Principal Emma Cobb. “Our new counselors have been doing a great job supporting them.”

Kirsten Wabbel, one of the new elementary school counselors, serves Kelly and Poinsettia schools. She visits each classroom once a month to teach lessons on topics such as conflict resolution, stress management, making new friends, being respectful to adults and peers, and developing organizational and study skills. 

“When I asked fourth graders what they wanted to learn from their counselor, they said ‘handling stress and making friends,’” Ms. Wabbel reported.

She also directs small groups where students have a safe place to talk about playground behaviors, maintaining friendships, or strategies to solve problems.  Also, she engages in one-on-one sessions with students needing targeted assistance with issues such as impulse control, aggression, depression, making good choices, or anxiety.

Here are some of the steps Carlsbad Unified has taken to address students’ social emotional, and mental health concerns across all grade levels:

• Hired five new counselors to help support our nine elementary schools with classroom presentations, small group discussions, and individual counseling sessions as needed, and outreach to families. 

• Contracted with Wellness Together to provide therapists at all middle schools and high schools to provide additional mental health support to students in need.

• Implemented Peer Assistance Listeners (PALs) programs at Carlsbad High School and Sage Creek High School. PALs are students who have been trained to listen and help peers with topics including study/organizational skills, stress and time management, social emotional concerns, and career exploration.

• Added three additional Health Technicians, in addition to the Health Technicians already assigned to each of our schools, to address increased physical and mental health needs that have arisen since March of 2020.

• Introduced a suicide prevention program that educates students about the relationship between suicide and depression and encourages students to seek help from trusted adults whenever they have concerns about themselves or a friend.

• Added five new bilingual community liaisons for expanded communication and outreach to families.

As we continue to navigate these unique times, we strive to provide every student an extraordinary education in an inspiring -- and safe -- environment.

October 2021 Message from the Superintendent

Carlsbad Unified’s Career Pathways Three-Year Strategic Plan

We all hope our children will succeed in following their dreams, enjoying happy family lives, and finding rewarding careers -- perhaps here in this beautiful community where they were raised.

But we know it is not a straightforward path. Although our local economy is rich with career opportunities for our young people, today’s labor market is complex and careers are specialized. Carlsbad is home to companies such as ViaSat, Thermo-Fisher, and TaylorMade, and to careers ranging from biotech and engineering to sports and leisure. Employers are looking to build a workforce possessing the education, talent, experience, and specialized training needed to fuel innovation and reap financial success. The challenge for young job seekers is to match their career interests and talents with the skills sets that the job market requires.

Carlsbad Unified’s Board of Trustees has long recognized the importance of helping students to find their strengths and passions and to select rewarding career paths, while readying them for tomorrow’s workforce. And, in endeavoring to prepare our students for their dream jobs while equipping them with the skills employers need, we perceived  the need for a comprehensive plan that harnesses the resources of the school district, the community, and local business and industry. 

To that end, the District created the Career Education Strategic Planning Workgroup, consisting of Carlsbad Unified administrators and teachers, representatives from MiraCosta College, regional pathways coordinators, and the Carlsbad Educational Foundation. This Workgroup has been meeting since January to create a comprehensive plan for career education.

At last week’s Board meeting, the staff presented a draft of CUSD’s Career Pathway 3-Year Strategic Plan. This plan is an ambitious K-12 approach to prepare students for their future education, careers, and lives. It sets out goals, and the action plans and measurement tools required for meeting them, in six areas: (1) Marketing, Outreach, and Recruitment; (2) Career Pathways Development; (3) Career Education Development K-12; (4) Funding, Facilities, and Equipment; (5) High Quality, Integrated Curriculum and Instruction; and (6) Industry and Community Partnership and Student Work-Based Learning.

Our Career Pathways programs are intended to help students:

 

      ●         Identify their strengths, interests, and values

      ●         Explore a variety of career options

      ●         Connect instructional activities to areas of interest

      ●         Interact with the business and professional community, and

      ●         Prepare for education beyond high school.

In taking on these new career-related challenges, the District will benefit from the extraordinary curriculum and instruction work it already has undertaken over the past several years. For instance: 

• The attributes our Graduate Profile has identified as crucial for our graduates as they move forward in their lives are also the soft skills that will prepare our students for success in the workplace.  These include effective communicators and collaborators; critical thinkers; ethical and responsible citizens; self-directed individuals; lifelong learners; and college- and career-ready scholars.

• CUSD’s academic goals of increasing both the number of graduates meeting the requirements of the University of California and California State University systems (the A through G requirements), and the number of students enrolled in challenging academic courses (such as Honors and AP classes, community college courses, and/or career pathways programs), prepare students with the academic rigor and technical knowledge that will further their readiness for the highly-skilled jobs of the future.

• Similarly, our current Career Pathways programs -- such as Biomedical Science, Digital Photography, and Engineering Design -- offer students key components of a strong career foundation: comprehensive support services; rigorous academics; career technical education; and work-based learning. 

We are excited to build on this strong foundation to strengthen our K-12 career education curriculum, and to expand our collaborations with local business and industry. We look forward to bringing even more authentic career information and experiences into the classroom, and to sending our students out into the community to take advantage of valuable opportunities for work-based learning.