Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

The following article was written by Sanborn Regional High School Guidance Counselor Heidi Leavitt: The adolescent years are marked by a roller-coaster ride of emotions – difficult for youths, their parents and educators.   It is easy to misread depression as normal adolescent turmoil; however, depression appears to be occurring at a much earlier age.   Depression- which is treatable – is a leading risk factor for suicide.    To proactively address these issues, Sanborn Regional High School is offering depression awareness and suicide prevention training as part of the SOS Signs of Suicide Prevention Program.   The program has proven to be successful at increasing help seeking by students concerned about themselves or a friend and is the only school based suicide prevention program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for its National Registry of Evidence-Based programs and Practices that addresses suicide risk an...

Our communities, like so many in Southern New Hampshire, have been rocked recently by the rise in the use of drugs like heroin. Recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data show that no family in our school is immune to this deadly addiction. This past summer, the Sanborn Regional School District, with support from community organizations like the Greater Derry Public Health Network, Southern Rockingham Coalition for Healthy Youth (SoROCK), and SAFE Sanborn, applied for and was granted a $100,000.00 two-year renewable grant for the hiring of a full-time Student Assistance Counselor who will work with families at both SRMS and SRHS. We are currently in the interview process for this position and hope to have someone on staff in just a few short weeks.   A Student Assistance Counselor is knowledgeable in areas such as child and adolescent development (to include mental health and substance abuse issues), substance abuse prevention, working with children of substanc...

Late this past summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a report that will likely become a hot topic at many School Board meetings in the coming months and years. The report, entitled School Start Times For Adolescents , studied the sleep patterns of teenagers and determined, with no surprise, that teens are not getting enough sleep and it is impacting their ability to perform in school. According to the report, teens need at least eight and a half hours of sleep each night. The report called upon schools to move their start time to a more reasonable 8:30AM to accommodate this increased sleep need. Mind / Shift blogger Nancy Shute wrote more about the impact this report has on schools in her article Pediatricians Say School Should Start Later For Teens’ Health . Shute reported that currently, just fifteen percent of high schools in America have a start time of 8:30AM or later, and forty percent start school before 8:00AM. Shute went on to write that studies have...

This week, more than 2,500 educators, experts, researchers, and policy makers have converged on the city of Palm Springs, California for the annual Blended and Online Learning Symposium hosted by iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning . For more than a decade, iNACOL has been working to ensure all students have access to a world-class education and quality blended and online learning opportunities that prepare them for a lifetime of success. Each year the symposium has grown in popularity with educators and schools from all over the country. In her opening remarks on Wednesday November 5, iNACOL President and CEO Susan Patrick applauded the work that is being done around the country to change the face of education. Patrick spoke about the rise of blended learning and competency education and the need for policy makers to in the various states to develop student accountability measures that would match the philosophies of competency education. The cr...