The face mask debate is over for now — hopefully for good, if the community can stay healthy — and annual budget deliberations are starting over how much the borough will contribute to education and how the school district will spend its local, state and federal money.
Which means it’s a good week to learn what students and staff are doing at Wrangell’s schools.
There are a couple of examples this week that students are learning what’s important in life and how to manage and succeed after graduation.
At Evergreen Elementary School, fifth graders determined they wanted to help raise money for the St. Frances Animal Shelter. It started earlier in the school year when staff decided to teach students about leadership and community and the ethics of helping out others.
Students connected with the message and the fifth graders came up with the Empty Your Pockets campaign that runs through March 21. They will place signs and donation cans around town, urging people to give to the animal shelter, and will entice the community with bake sales the next two weekends.
It’s not about how much they raise. The success of the new teaching effort at Evergreen is that students see themselves as part of the community and want to help.
Being part of the bigger community after graduating high school is the focus of another effort at the school district. The high school and middle school, with help from SEARHC and other organizations and businesses in town, will put on a social-emotional fair, call it a life skills fair, on April 5.
“We’ve been struggling ever since COVID, or even before that with the social-emotional situation with our kids,” said Bob Davis, the assistant principal of both schools. “The needs of the kids have grown exponentially,” Davis said. That’s everything from academics to the skills they will need later in life.
SEARHC will provide students with information on coping, anxiety, depression and anger, teen drinking and peer pressure, and staying safe online.
School counselor Addy Esco has asked the borough’s parks and recreation department to have a booth with information about how physical activity can help mental health.
“I’ll have a booth that’s centered (on) students thinking about their future; career planning stuff, some life skills stuff, ways to help kids be well-rounded,” Esco said, adding that shop teacher Winston Davies will be there to discuss career and technical education opportunities.
Davis said it’s a matter of coming together as a community to help the students.
That’s a good lesson to teach, and an even better one to learn.
Wrangell Sentinel
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