Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Sel topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Seaside Middle School highlights SEL rollout and outlines plan to address chronic absenteeism
Summary
Seaside School District presented Seaside Middle School’s social-emotional learning implementation and attendance strategy: SEL curriculum Wayfinder and homeroom routines are in place, but the school reported 88% daily attendance (goal 95%) and said 46% of students meet the district’s chronic-absence definition.
Seaside School District leaders used the board meeting to spotlight Seaside Middle School’s social-emotional learning (SEL) rollout and the school’s efforts to raise student attendance.
Shelby Gagnon, the district’s teacher on special assignment for student success, told the board the district adopted the Wayfinder SEL curriculum and now maintains a 30‑minute homeroom class focused on weekly SEL lessons and grade checks. "We have twice weekly grade-level Wayfinder lessons," Gagnon said, adding that Wayfinder emphasizes self-awareness, adaptability, empathy, collaboration, agency and purpose. On a fall 2024 summative survey, 61% of responding students reported strength in SEL topics and 208 students scored 4.3 or above on a supportive-relationships measure.
The presentation paired SEL progress with an attendance report that school leaders called a priority. Presenters said the middle school currently averages 88% daily attendance, short of a 95% goal, and that roughly 46% of students meet the district threshold for chronic absence. To respond, the school will use a student-intervention team (SIT), implement one-on-one follow-ups for chronically absent students, and pilot “accountability buddies” in homeroom in which peers check in when a classmate is missing. "We’re going to be listing those students and what supports we can put in place for individual students," a presenter said.
Administrators also described targeted academic supports — a 32‑minute tutorial block, math foundations classes co-taught with special education staff, and acceleration options that place middle-schoolers into high-school credit courses when appropriate. School leaders credited integrated tutorial time and cross‑content instruction with recent gains in literacy and math metrics, noting increases in IXL practice and Lexile growth results.
Board members praised the improvement trends and pressed for clearer communications with families about opt-out and intervention options. The presentation closed with next steps: expanding individualized interventions, exploring middle-school algebra-for-credit to relieve high-school scheduling bottlenecks, and continuing Wayfinder assessments through the end of the year.
