“Our small, rural middle and high school has long prided itself on knowing our students well and being able to adapt to meet a student’s needs. If an individual student was running into trouble with the system that was in place, our teachers and administrators worked hard to find a way to get that student what he or she needed. However, by joining the WCN, our school has learned ways to Move away from just helping an individual student who struggles with the Educational system towards building an entire school that fits the needs of each of our students. For our school, this work began by finding ways to better meet students’ basic needs for health and safety, especially in areas like mental health support, food service programs, and sustaining students’ connections with teachers. As our school has continued to work towards creating an engaging, supportive, and challenging environment, we’ve focused on things like teacher growth and on Explaining options for students to meet their learning goals.”
—Stacy Carpenter, School Counselor