Wildwood principal highlights community-building programs, social-emotional focus

Melissa Damon, principal of Wildwood Elementary, presented the school's state-of-school focused on belonging, DEIB work and operational initiatives. She described a kindergarten lunch reconfiguration called "Cafe K" that seats classes together to build social connection and reduce conflict, and a Friday morning mileage club open to families and community members. “At Wildwood, we know your name is our purpose,” Damon said, explaining that building identity and belonging is foundational to academic and social-emotional progress.

Damon described site-level Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) processes for identifying student needs, monthly review meetings of a multi-person team, and efforts to integrate general and special education supports. She reported three certificated hires and eight classified hires this year and said roughly 65% of new hires were diverse. Board members asked about the composition of the three certificated hires; Damon clarified those hires included a PE teacher, an inclusion teacher, and a technology teacher (Louisa Chung), and indicated not all certificated hires were racial/ethnic minorities.

Why it matters: The presentation laid out concrete site-level practices the district is using to support social-emotional learning, reduce behavior incidents and increase family engagement. Board members praised the initiatives and asked about how responsive-classroom practices and professional development are being scheduled across the tri-school sites.