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Board approves Royal Oak Youth Assistance appointments; organization highlights Second Step expansion
Summary
The board approved appointments to the Royal Oak Youth Assistance volunteer board and heard that the group is expanding its Second Step social-emotional program into all elementary schools.
The Royal Oak Schools Board of Education on May 8 approved a slate of volunteers to serve on the Royal Oak Youth Assistance board of directors and heard about the organization’s Second Step social-emotional learning program.
Trustees voted to approve nominees including Shelley Kemp (chair), Christine Cheubenko, Candy Juilliard and other community members; the motion passed as recorded in the minutes. Shelley Kemp, who was in the audience, spoke and described the Second Step program, which teaches social‑emotional skills and classroom strategies that help children “count to 10” before reacting and to de‑escalate peer conflicts.
Kemp said Second Step has been in two elementary schools previously and that the organization has recently worked to expand the curriculum districtwide to all elementary buildings. She described classroom vignettes and cited a first-grade lesson where students practiced responses to accidental spills and knocks, telling the board she hopes to expand Second Step to K–8 in future years.
Why it matters: Youth Assistance provides prevention and family-support services in partnership with the district and city. Trustees and administrators described the program as an important prevention tool that supports student behavior and classroom climate; district staff said former district teachers now deliver many of the lessons, easing implementation challenges that had limited earlier rollout.
