SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Summit K2 & Summit TAM

​Many of our school partners have challenged themselves to push the limits of distance learning for their staff and students. Our partners at Summit K2 and Summit Tamalpais are no different. I am excited to share some of the innovative ways that our staff have collaborated with these Summit schools to implement the vision of Unconditional Education in the virtual world. 

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Summit K2 and Summit TAM serve a diverse population of middle and high school students from the West Contra Costa County School District. We have partnered with K2 and TAM since their openings, in 2014 and 2016 respectively, to provide Educationally Related Mental Health Services (ERMHS) and other Special Education supports and consultation. Currently, we have three clinicians providing ERMHS to the K2 and TAM school communities: Hannah Hernandez, Doug Woodson, and Shannah Roston-Cooper. Laura Lin oversees the Summit Partnership and I provide clinical supervision and consultation. The work of an ERMHS provider is usually limited to serving only students on the ERMHS caseloads. Our team has expanded the impact of our role by creatively partnering with Summit to support the needs of their larger school community as well. 

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​Since the shelter in place order went into effect in March 2020, our staff have collaborated with Summit leadership and special education teams to come up with ideas to address some of the most pressing issues facing students, families, and staff: equity, empathy, and connection (to the work and to each other). Here are some examples: 

• To ensure that all students have what they need to successfully engage in school, our clinicians regularly meet with school admin and teachers to identify and connect families with needed resources. For example, we provided a student who doesn’t have consistent and reliable access to power with back-up batteries for his computer.

• Clinicians regularly meet with admin and attend grade-level meetings to reflect on students’ experience in the virtual classroom or caregivers’ experience around supporting their child’s learning. Through these conversations, the teams work to identify individualized interventions to promote engagement and better support learning.

• Clinicians collaborated with school admin to provide virtual self-care community meetings for staff so teachers could connect with one another and share challenges and successes. 

• Clinicians partnered with other Summit team members to offer virtual lunch bunches and open support groups so that students could have an opportunity to connect with friends.

• Summit K2 and Tam leadership have partnered with Seneca to provide staff with the following PDs: Trauma Informed Care Practices, “Why Are We Here” – a workshop on finding meaning in our work, and Staff Resilience.

I am appreciative of the strong relationships that we’ve built with our partners at Summit K2 and Summit Tam and of ways that our teams center the voices and experiences of students, families, and the community.

Blog Post Written By: Robyn Ganeles, Clinical Supervisor