There is a huge sign in front of the school announcing its “sesquicentennial” celebration.  That means this school has served the Oakland school children, families, and the community for over 150 years!  The Prescott Elementary school was founded in 1869.  Ida Louise Jackson, Oakland’s first African American teacher, taught at Prescott in 1925-- 13 years before any other school hired a black teacher.  The school served the historic West Oakland community and for years, had an enrollment of predominantly African American students.  The spirit of Black pride is woven into the make-up of the school.  With the shifting times, the school has gone through transitions but remains firmly committed to serving the community through education and community building.  During the 2005-2006 school year, the school was re-envisioned with a new name of PLACE @ Prescott (Preparatory Literary Academy of Cultural Excellence).  Check out this video that captures the breadth and legacy of teachers and students at Prescott:

​This is our first year in partnership with this notable school.  Helmed by a seasoned principal who embodies the values of the school, we jumped into a busy school year with a full team made up of Danee Black (UE Coach), Kaycee Hasan (Clinical Intervention Specialist), Ronni Pelley (Mental Health Counselor, Associate), and Alithu Manrique (Mental Health Counselor) working along side the school with the Intensive Counseling Enriched Classroom (ICEC).  Our Seneca representatives on the school campus also embody the values of the school, bringing a strong sense of pride in culture and education.

As with any new partnership, this Seneca team worked tirelessly to figure out systems, build alliances with the school, and flex the strengths of the Seneca All In models of inclusion.  Through their tenacity and dedication this team has forged a strong relationship with the special education teacher within the ICEC class and has opened the pathways to connecting with the wider campus staff and leaders.  Their creativity in managing challenges is unparalleled!  From impromptu classroom activities to ongoing space issues to holding consistent expectations for their students amidst intense, daunting behaviors, the team perseveres towards living out a disconfirming stance that the students can and shall have access to the education they deserve.  As one member said, “…this is a team where all members give 110%!”  Team members have created inventive calming spaces on the campus, helped manage contentious meetings with families with the Department of Transportation, won over the families of our ICEC students with phone calls that convey respect and collaboration (with other agencies asking for tips on how this team did this!), and stepped into the community/client’s homes/school bus to provide the service where it is needed.  They have given and received feedback with each other through this process.  They have laughed, they have cried, and they have talked and talked and talked (this is a very talkative group).

Their students in the ICEC program have acknowledged the team’s care and importance in their young lives in subtle ways and in memorable overt ways, like the time the students made superlative awards for each Seneca team member in secret to surprise the group.  The best teacher, the best counselor, the most nicest person – these are the attributes that the students could see in their classroom team.  This simple expression can be uncomfortable for these students and it shows great trust that they were able to engage with the team in a vulnerably sweet way.
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I’m proud of this team at Prescott.  They are embodying the shared values of the school and laying the groundwork for an even stronger partnership in the years to come.  Maybe for the next 150 years??

At Impact Puget Sound Elementary (Impact PSE), part of the Washington specialist team [made up of occupational therapist, physical therapists, speech language pathologists, and school psychologists] has had the opportunity to put Seneca values into action. This fall, a student with very high needs enrolled in the public charter school. This child is non-verbal, does not use assistive technology, and has decreased muscle strength and tone. The specialist team supporting her at Impact includes myself (an Occupational Therapist), our speech language pathologist, Ashley Contreras-France, and Lee Butler, Lead Learning Specialist.

​Lodestar is an EL Education School with a project-based model, supporting students in becoming lifelong changemakers. Lodestar is the sister school to Lighthouse Community Charter school and first open it’s door in 2015 at the Patten University campus in the Fruitvale District in Oakland, CA. After two short years on this campus, the school was forced to change locations to the St. Jarlath Church campus in 2017 until finding their forever home in Sobrante Park in 2018.
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Currently located in Sobrante Park, the school leads with core values of Agency, Social Justice, Integrity, Love, and Community:

• COMMUNITY: We are best when we respect, value and celebrate our diversity and strengthen our connections.
• INTEGRITY: We act on our shared and personal values, especially in the face of adversity.
• LOVE: We extend ourselves so that all feel a sense of belonging and acceptance.
• SOCIAL JUSTICE: We act with courage and commitment to move toward a just and equitable world.
• AGENCY: We are empowered to pursue purposeful action as life-long changemakers.

Lodestar is in our 4th year of operation. It’s currently K-8 and are growing to be K-12. They currently broke ground this year and in process to building their high school. There’s lots of exciting growth and potential for Lodestar in the coming years. 

Our school highlight this week is our newest partnership with Rosemary Elementary in Campbell Unified School District. Our UE partnership with Rosemary was the result of an expansion with Santa Clara County interested in building strong culture and climate and effective systems of support within schools with high needs student populations. 

​Unconditional Education is about serving the students who need the most intensive level of support on a school campus while also positively impacting the culture and climate of that school community as a whole.  Clinical Intervention Specialists Brittany Allinger and Caroline Larrieu Casias embody that mission every day through their outstanding work at Elmhurst United Middle School in Oakland.

​Schools in low-income communities face enormous challenges of resource scarcity as they fight to promote equity and social justice.  Caroline and Brittany bring valuable clinical leadership to Elmhurst through their strengths-based approach to both the micro ​(student/family-focused) and macro (system-oriented) levels of practice. 

​Their work with students and families is grounded in respect, creativity, and cultural responsiveness.  With empathy and courage, they facilitate deeper levels of communication, connection, and understanding among family members facing serious challenges.  Through ongoing reflective practice, they continually explore how identity, power, and privilege impact their work.

The mission of Seneca’s Oakland Alameda Public Schools (SOAPS) program is to provide each student with the best individualized academic, behavioral, social, and emotional support possible in the least restrictive environment. The I-CECs include a multidisciplinary team of the district teacher, district teacher’s aide, Seneca Mental Health Counselors, Seneca Classroom Therapist, and a Seneca UE Coach. Through team collaboration, each student’s unique needs and goals are addressed through a personalized treatment plan that includes individual, group, and often family therapy, supported by intensive case management and crisis intervention services. Program services are designed and tailored to enable each individual student the best possible behavioral, therapeutic, and educational support.
 
The classroom at Think College Now (TCN) is new to SOAPS this year. TCN is a college-focused elementary school in Oakland’s Fruitvale district who’s mission is that all students will have the tools to choose their life’s path and desired occupation with an equitable opportunity to attend college and pursue their dreams. There are currently four 4th – 6th grade students enrolled in the classroom, all of whom are working on specialized behavioral and academic plans. Students receive individual therapy every week as well participate in group social skills, and the classroom therapist is available for check-ins with students as needed. With the support of the classroom team, three students who are partially mainstreaming in general education classes, and the remaining student will be joining their peers very soon. 

This year our Mental Health team at Lighthouse expanded significantly and it’s been an exciting collaboration to watch unfold.   After years of providing therapy services through a county contract for just one Clinical Intervention Specialist (CIS) on the high school side, this year the Seneca team found itself with a new, expanded contract. Our team suddenly went from one to three CIS plus a graduate student intern, as well as two School Psychology interns!!  

We now provide therapy services for students from Kindergarten through 12th grade.  Our expanded Seneca team joins Lighthouse’s own Lead Clinician, Lighthouse’s Clinical Psychologist and 5 Clinical Psychology interns.  I think this is the largest combined counseling support team of any of our All In programs--11 people sharing three therapy spaces, fanning out to support a myriad of students, families and needs in a -dare I say- beautifully coordinated manner. This doesn’t even factor in our Speech and Occupational Therapy providers, who round out our Seneca therapeutic team (between the Lighthouse and Lodestar school campuses) to create quite a crowded office when we all show up at the same time!
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Coordinating this many people takes planning, patience and understanding from everyone involved.  To start, our teams had to get real about how many rooms the school has available for confidential therapy space.  Once this was established, teams set about creating color-coded, individualized calendars that show who will use what room, and when.  Even with this organizational feat completed, I have witnessed team members graciously offering to step out of a shared space to allow for another confidential meeting to occur.  I am consistently charmed by the positive energy and willingness to compromise that each person seems to manifest as these teams get to know each other and we head into the second quarter of the school year.  
 
There is no doubt the students at Lighthouse can feel this level of collaboration and kindness.  When teams work to build trust and show grace to each other, team members are more equipped to meet the needs of the students with a grounded, even presence.  It’s like that airplane-age-old proverb of putting your oxygen mask on first before helping others: the Lighthouse team is bringing so much oxygen!!!  

​Since the 2017-2018 school year, Seneca Washington has cultivated an impactful relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary (pK-5th) in Seattle’s Othello neighborhood. As part of Seneca’s expanding partnership with Seattle Public Schools, a Student Support Counselor was placed at the school in Fall of 2017. Starting in the Fall of 2019, Seneca proudly expanded MLK Jr.’s partnership to include a full-time Unconditional Education Coach.

​With an enrollment of about 350 students, MLK Jr. takes seriously it’s responsibility to provide every student with an excellent, holistic education. Martin Luther King Jr. is known a Seattle Public School’s most diverse student body, with students coming from over 20 unique languages and cultures. Over 98% of MLK Jr.’s students are students of color and about 40% are English Language Learners. Martin Luther King Jr. is a school where joy is always in the air, families and community members are active and engaged, and staff care deeply about the students they serve. 

​Seneca’s partnership with MLK Jr. Elementary began with a full-time Student Support Counselor focused on carrying out the reset procedure- helping students who are experiencing behavioral challenges, in the moment, to regulate emotions, reflect, restore relationships, and reintegrate into classrooms. With support from Seneca staff, these Tier II and Tier III behaviors become less frequent and shorter in duration. The reduction in reactive interventions at MLK Jr. provided a powerful opportunity for Seneca- to shift the focus of the partnership to a proactive PBIS-informed approaches (check-in/check-outs, reward systems, behavior plans, etc.) for individual students.

​As the partnership with MLK Jr. continued to grow, Seneca staff became more integral resources in systems-wide changes at the classroom and school-wide level. This shift resulted in Seneca placing MLK Jr.’s first Unconditional Education Coach at the school in August 2019. Martin Luther King Jr.’s UE Coach works in-step with the principal to lead multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams to identify key areas of growth within the school. In a few short months, the UE Coach has made incredible progress in implementing core parts of the Unconditional Education model; she’s kick-started the school’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support team, coordinated MLK Jr.’s PBIS implementation, established a Coordination of Services Team referral system, and began coaching individual staff members. Seneca’s partnership with MLK Jr. Elementary is a powerful example of the impact of multi-year partnerships. Through building trust, integrating into MLK’s school community, and developing closely aligned values, Seneca’s partnership continues to increase the achievement of MLK Jr. students by building a climate and culture that is engaging and responsive to all.

​I’m writing this week to introduce Ánimo Legacy Charter Middle School, one of Seneca’s newest school partners and one of our very first in Los Angeles! Ánimo Legacy is one of twenty Green Dot schools in LA and is located in the south LA community of West Athens, serving approximately 1,200 students in 6th through 8th grade. Legacy is hosted on the campus of Los Angeles Unified’s Henry Clay Middle School, which Green Dot assumed control of in 2011 through LAUSD’s Public School Choice initiative, where operators can apply to run one or more of the city’s most persistently low-performing schools. Clay was split into two smaller campuses—Ánimo Western Charter Middle School and Ánimo Phillis Wheatley—before being unified this school year as Ánimo Legacy.
 
Legacy’s partnership with Seneca began when Green Dot toured some of our Bay Area programs back in January of this year. During those tours, Green Dot became especially interested in Seneca’s culture and climate partnerships and the role of the UE Coach. Through a grant from LAUSD’s SELPA, we were able to place a UE Coach at Legacy this school year, Jeraniqua Martin, whose focus is to help develop the new school’s systems for coordination of services and school culture and climate improvements. In addition to Jeraniqua’s role, the grant also funds a series of trainings for Green Dot’s network-wide team of twenty-five school psychologists (led by our very own Sonya Benavides) on best practices for COST and MTSS implementation.
 
At Ánimo Legacy, our partnership this year has focused on building on the school’s existing strengths and systems of support. Among its many strengths, Legacy’s team has built incredibly strong connections with families and the community, with an admin team that strongly prioritizes family involvement in their students’ education. Many teachers have also been with their respective schools since their founding in 2011, which resulted in strong—but different—cultures having developed on each campus. These differences in school cultures have provided something of a challenge as the schools merged, as staff (and families) across both schools had grown accustomed to their own norms, practices, and ways of being. To help support this transition, our work has focused on two priority areas this year. First, Jeraniqua is participating on Legacy’s School Culture Team, whose aim is to build unity and cohesion among staff, students, and families. Second, Jeraniqua is leading Legacy’s new Student Support and Progress Team (SSPT)—our local version of COST—to help develop collaborative systems of support for students, staff, and teachers.
 
Even as these structures continue to take shape, Jeraniqua has wasted no time building relationships across the Legacy community. Only two months into the school year, she has already built quite a following on campus—whether it’s students reaching out in need of someone to talk to, a teacher asking for support with a student or intervention, or a member of the School Culture Team asking for advice about Niqua’s experience leading PBIS, SART, or MTSS initiatives at her previous schools. We are only excited to find more ways to roll these supports out campus-wide as the year continues!