Walker schools task force tackles top issues

A Walker County school task force will tackle top social-emotional issues affecting students and schools.

The Walker school board, during it Oct. 8 planning session, announced a crisis task force will meet on Oct. 30 to discuss the top 10 issues affecting the school district and building frameworks to address them. Educators want to establish best practices to deal with the issues, allowing schools to tailor their responses, based on an individual school’s culture and student body.

“We are looking at trauma-informed strategies,” Walker County Schools Superintendent Damon Raines said, explaining that if educators know what is happening in a student’s life, they can work to calm the situation so that the student can focus on learning.

If students are not learning those coping skills in other areas, the school system will work to bridge those gaps to meet the student’s social-emotional needs, he said.

“The task force will be an ongoing component of what we do with our guidance counselors,” he said.

The task force, in place since March 2019, consists of social workers, counselors, school psychologists and the teacher of the year candidates, and the group will expand as it begins focusing on individual topics, he said. The group has already met a few times this year to select the top issues.

The superintendent said he currently receives input from the student government associations at the high schools and student wellness team, and this information can be shared with the task force to incorporate the perspective of students.

The board will also adopt baseline expectations to enable administrators to track data.

The task force is also reaching out to neighboring systems to share information because these issues are so common that every school system is probably looking at how to support its students’ social and emotional needs, he said.

“Homelessness is becoming more and more of an issue,” he said. In Georgia, if a student does not live with a parent or immediate family member, the student is considered homeless.

To address food insecurity and clothing needs, Ridgeland and LaFayette high schools have a food pantry and clothes closet where students can discreetly get assistance. For example, students can pick up personal care products and clothing for interviews, and they can use the field house showers if they do not have hot water at home.

Board chairman Karen Stoker said she was floored to learn