This week we are venturing to Hayward to highlight another Unconditional Education MAC SELPA partnership, one of our newest this year: Cherryland Elementary. Located in the Cherryland Area of Hayward, this relatively new campus grabs your attention as you drive through the neighborhood.
As you enter the campus you are immediately greeted by turf lawn areas that students and staff alike enjoy sitting on and eating. Walk a little further and there is an open garden featuring fruit trees, planted vegetables, and a variety of flowers as well. The campus classrooms are divided among a 2-story, state-of-the-art designed classroom space that were designed so nice, our very own facilities took pictures of it for inspiration!
As you ascend the stairs you are greeted by our classroom. Within our classroom you may find our amazing teacher, Chase (a Seneca alum), Laryonda (our extraordinary therapist), and some amazing Mental Health Counselors: Sierra, Shaquan, and Erika.
We had the privilege of partnering with this program in the midst of the pandemic. Unfortunately, due to COVID, no on-campus meetings or in-person intakes with families were allowed, which made it a bit challenging to build new relationships with families that were bonded to the previous teams. Virtual tours and Zoom video meetings of the space don’t hit the same mark that an in-person meeting can. While the team continued to reach out to our families and establish a strong community within these partly established classrooms, rumors began coming around that some of our families did not like us nor how we were providing support to the students. Our teacher and team attempted to engage our families to get down to these negative feelings that were being reported, however all families reported positive support and good communication.
As you ascend the stairs you are greeted by our classroom. Within our classroom you may find our amazing teacher, Chase (a Seneca alum), Laryonda (our extraordinary therapist), and some amazing Mental Health Counselors: Sierra, Shaquan, and Erika.
We had the privilege of partnering with this program in the midst of the pandemic. Unfortunately, due to COVID, no on-campus meetings or in-person intakes with families were allowed, which made it a bit challenging to build new relationships with families that were bonded to the previous teams. Virtual tours and Zoom video meetings of the space don’t hit the same mark that an in-person meeting can. While the team continued to reach out to our families and establish a strong community within these partly established classrooms, rumors began coming around that some of our families did not like us nor how we were providing support to the students. Our teacher and team attempted to engage our families to get down to these negative feelings that were being reported, however all families reported positive support and good communication.
Since we couldn’t hold an event on campus with our families, we chose to think outside of the box, and we ended up at a pizza parlor near the site. Out of the 9 students in the classroom, only 2 families couldn’t make it. For the first time in almost 4 months, we were able to put faces to names and allow them the same opportunity. That evening, we provided dinner for all the families present, allowing them to eat in family pods and then socialize with masks at other times. The families shared how much they appreciated our program and means of communication, while also stating that they did not have any problems. This event gave us an opportunity to lean into possible negativity that was festering and create a foundation for positive open communication moving forward.
From this meeting we have seen an increase in our family engagement and responses from caregiver-to-staff outreach. Clearly Omicron has put a damper on our hopes to do more events like this in our MAC SELPA programs, but we will definitely resume them as safety allows and things begin to open back up.
From this meeting we have seen an increase in our family engagement and responses from caregiver-to-staff outreach. Clearly Omicron has put a damper on our hopes to do more events like this in our MAC SELPA programs, but we will definitely resume them as safety allows and things begin to open back up.
Blog Post Written By: Anthone Jackson, Director of School Partnerships
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