Stagg’s Pupil Personnel Services Team wins award

By Kelly White

Since the pandemic’s onset, Stagg High School staff has been taking extra measures to assure its students are not only prepared for the classroom in a standard, structured way, but they are also going above and beyond to stay in check with students’ mental health.

The Stagg Pupil Personnel Services Team at the high school, 8015 W. 111th St. in Palos Hills, does just that by serving all the entire school through a comprehensive approach to the provision of academic and social-emotional support. The team is composed of more than 30 school officials from a variety of academic backgrounds, including: counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, the school nurse, Deans of Students, support staff and administrators,

“During the pandemic members of the Pupil Personnel Services team made it a priority to reach out to our students and families to ensure that they had the basic essential needs in support them, but also to make sure that students could focus on being an active member of their own learning without the burdens that the pandemic brought,” Dr. Ian MacLeod, Associate Principal for Pupil Personnel Services, said.

This included delivering meals, essential items, mental health coping kits, and providing resources for medical, mental health, and living and utility supports.

Stagg’s PPS team earned a huge recognition from the Illinois State Board of Education. They earned the Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel Meritorious Service award for their work as a team to do outreach with students and families in the community during and beyond the pandemic.

The award was received during a banquet held by the State Board of Education on August 6, in Bloomington-Normal.

“PPS is all about relationships with staff and each other and how they carry over to support our students and families,” Randy James, Stagg Social Worker, said. “Through these relationships we get to know and support the needs of everyone in our school community.”

Members of the PPS team provide daily support to any number of students each day at Stagg. This support takes many forms and may include academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and specifically targeted family support.

“The team has worked to identify families in need and has responded in kind as we know that the more that we can do to support families, the better students will perform overall,” Paige Lombard, Stagg Social Worker, said.

Some of the things the PPS team is working on for the current school year include continued support of students, families and staff members along with continued participation and emphasis of the school’s Say Something campaign.

Say Something is a national campaign that raises public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity to state and local law enforcement.

The purpose behind the initiative is if a student or staff member sees something, they should say something and let someone else know.

“We are also working to refine academic interventions with students this year while also working to bring trauma-informed practices to our classrooms through ongoing professional development and reinforcement of these practices to sound instruction,” Dr. Kathryn Meader, Director of Guidance at Stagg, said.