Akron Life September 2023

if you didn’t. If that happens again, I want you to find the same adult and say, It’s still going on. If you feel like your message isn’t being heard, come see Mr. Ziccardi, Mrs. Pestello, Mrs. Parks or me — we’re here.” The serene, blue-painted R&R Room with natural wood, calm ing lights, plants, a chamomile diffuser, a crafting area, a sound-deadening egg chair and more helps teachers and staff ers destress. The new space was developed with a Trauma Responsive Educational Practices consultant as a place teachers and staffers can go to refresh, combat burnout and turnover and get the extra sup port they need. “Akron Public Schools is a microcosm of what’s happening nationwide with people leaving the profession,” Davis says. “I try with all my staff to bring self care and self-regulation to the forefront. … People are seeing that teachers and educators are prone to secondary post traumatic stress, compassion fatigue. [We’re] bringing light to those things and how they can be very real and creating space for working through some of those issues.” Teachers can work closely with students because the I Promise School teacher-to student ratio is smaller, 1 to 20, accord ing to Davis, versus that of the district’s lower grade levels, which is 1 to 24, ac cording to APS. Longer 9 a.m.-to-4 p.m. school days offer teachers dedicated time to work with students in small groups or individually, plus students can do extra curriculars or recently added sports such as step, basketball, soccer, cheerleading and track, and that enrichment helps with behavioral issues. Intensive summer camps help combat summer slide, and Campbell says the foundation is consid ering adding more intentional camps to help kids catch up.

Stephanie Davis

to move the needle closing that achieve ment gap.” “Struggling through a reading passage or not being able to figure out a math problem, sometimes that can be, I’ve had these horrific events happen, and I can’t recoup because my brain is in survival mode ,” Davis adds. Social-emotional learning is the heart of I Promise School, and it helps students with trauma by establishing clear rituals and routines, Davis says. Part of that is reciting the I Promise pledges daily like, I promise to go to school, to do my homework and to finish school. Each day starts with students sitting in an “I Prom ise circle” so they can process their feel ings before learning happens. Through out the day, students identify what zone of regulation they fit into based on their feelings: yellow is worry or frustration, blue is sick or sad, red is angry and green is happy and ready to learn. Teachers discuss how kids can get to green with coping tools such as using a stress ball or talking to a friend. “They learn ways to label their emo tions,” Davis says. “They learn ways to match the size of their reaction with the size of the problem.” It’s about building trusted relationships so students are more likely to open up and teachers can help remove barriers. If a student discloses an issue like abuse or hunger, teachers report it or link the

student to the proper resources. Students and their families can go to the Family Resource Center for help with access to medical care, mental health care, legal aid, Job and Family Services, financial literacy, GED classes, ESL classes, eye care, laundry and a full-time food pantry with food and household goods. It’s been so successful that there are now similar centers in other APS schools. And like other APS schools, there are free break fasts and lunches, and I Promise School students also get bikes and We Are Fam ily clothing, in addition to activities like an annual family reunion at Cedar Point. These extra opportunities help deepen bonds. Being family means teachers and staffers are there when students struggle. At the Meet the Principal event, Davis fields questions from students, guardians and parents about sports and field trips but also tackles some complex ones about bullying. On the playground, I usually get bullied. I would tell the teacher, and I think they would deal with it. The next day I always get bullied again, one student says. Davis looks her in the eyes, clutching a mic and wearing a We Are Family T-shirt. “I don’t want you to feel like that,” she says. “I believe that the teach ers probably did deal with it. Did you say, Hey, dude’s doing it again? It’s OK

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akronlife.com | SEPTEMBER 2023