January 2022 Message From the Superintendent

Kindness Matters Everywhere

Dr. Ben Churchill

It’s the Great Kindness Challenge Week, and Carlsbad Unified is abuzz with kind words and thoughtful acts. 

The Great Kindness Challenge, presented by Kids For Peace, was started right here in 2011 by Carlsbad parents and students, and is now observed around the world. Seventeen million students – attending 33,000 schools in 110 countries – participated last year, registering 843 million acts of kindness. It’s what the world needs now. 

Carlsbad Unified is committed to promoting social-emotional wellness and safe and healthy schools, so every CUSD school has been planning fun and meaningful activities to celebrate The Great Kindness Challenge. Spiritwear days, door decorating, kind messages, and acts of generosity are bringing compassion to the forefront on campus. 

One of the founding schools, Hope Elementary, had a rousing line-up of Kindness activities this week:

• On Sunday, the Kids For Peace students met at school to decorate the campus with Kindness banners, posters, and sidewalk chalk art. 

• On Monday, a police officer on his motorcycle led the students to the playground for the Kindness Kick-off. A “virtual assembly,” featuring a video made by the Kids For Peace students, was shown in all classrooms. At recess, students were welcomed with Kindness Stations, where they might “Entertain someone with a happy dance,” “Tell a joke to make someone laugh,” or play Freeze Dance.

• On Tuesday, there was a Wishing Well, where students could “Make a wish for a child in another country.” Or they could make a donation to Kind Coins, which is raising money to purchase laptops for students in a remote village in Peru. Tuesday’s virtual assembly included a video about those Peruvian students. (In previous years, Kind Coins built schools in Pakistan and Kenya, a health clinic in Liberia, and, over the last two years, a preschool and friendship center in Tijuana.)

• On Wednesday, students wrote a kind note to a teacher–it has been a tough time for teachers–and gave them Kindness kits. 

Hope Elementary students will make a video of this week’s Kindness activities, and will trade their video for those made by their partner schools in Shawnee, Kansas, and Pune, India.

The activities across all sixteen school sites support our district’s social and emotional learning goals, helping Carlsbad Unified to build a culture based on respect, inclusion, and kindness.

This year’s Great Kindness Challenge theme – Kindness Matters Everywhere – reminds us that, in these days of stress and anxiety, we already have the tools to support one another on campus and in the community.

As we enjoy Kindness Week, our students are learning that every act of kindness matters, and that every person can truly make a difference and have a powerful impact that extends throughout the world. 

In the words of Kids For Peace Co-founder Jill McManigal, ”My word for 2022 is Gratitude. I am grateful to all who believe in the power of kindness, and to all who give our youth the opportunity to practice respect, gratitude, and inclusiveness.”

Now, more than ever, #KindnessMatters. 

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.