Wilton Public Schools Staff and Students Speak to Bolstering Environment of Safety, Belonging & Welcome for All

Out of the mouths of students and staff, the Board of Education heard some general assessments Thursday, Nov. 21, on what Wilton Public Schools is doing to make itself safer and more inclusive.

Kim Zemo, the WPS Director of Safe School Climate, Community, Wellness and Belonging, led a presentation focusing on some of the specifics related to general wellness and a healthy, welcoming school climate.

“When our school communities are safe and welcoming, every student will feel a sense of belonging, fostering student wellness while promoting a positive school climate, and that’s really kind of our focus,” she said.

Representatives of Wilton High School‘s student-run Hope Squad, including President Lia Lombardi and Vice President Chloe DuBrock, spoke about the work and goals of this suicide-prevention club, which also strives to promote inclusion at WHS.

“Hope Squad is a school-based peer-to-peer suicide prevention program training students and staff on suicide prevention,” Lombardi said.

“We really want to also provide a sense of kindness and inclusiveness and overall well-being for students,” she said.

As well as helping to educate students and staff about good self-care practices to reduce stress, DuBrock said that, as the eyes and ears of the student body, Hope Squad members also strive to stay vigilant about when other students may be in need.

“It’s really hard to recognize that you need help and to go in and ask for help yourself,” she said, “so as the eyes and ears, we notice in our student body students that may feel isolated or exhibit warning signs that we learn about in our training … so that we may refer these students that may be struggling, to the mental health staff at our school.”

Lombardi said that some of the proactive activities the club has executed have included distributing kindness notes to individuals and creating a video celebrating kindness.

The two student leaders also visited Middlebrook School last week to discuss self-advocacy with eighth-grade students.

“It’s very important for students to self-advocate,” Lombardi said, “and I think that teaching them at the eighth-grade level that that’s important will really help them prepare … so we created an activity for that.”

“I feel like a lot of the eighth graders understood that it’s important to speak up for themselves and ask teachers questions, ask upperclassmen, and that asking for help and being vulnerable is okay,” she said.

The students noted that the Hope Squad has doubled in size since last year, with a diverse range of students taking part in the work.

“We do work to make sure that there’s students in every corner of the high school, so we have students in theater and music, the GSA — the gay-straight alliance. We have students everywhere. We have student-athletes in every sport because … if it’s embedded in every area of the school, then it’ll be a safer school community,” Lombardi said.

“At the high school, obviously creating a cellphone-free school has been a big part of our climate plan,” Zemo said, also noting that updated Codes of Conduct for both the high school and Middlebrook are part of the work of establishing guidelines, consequences and restorative practices.

The Board of Education will likely hear a review of progress on the new cellphone ban at WHS sometime in December.

Looking ahead, Zemo presented a timeline for a proposed school climate survey, which is required by the State Department of Education. Survey questions are currently being crafted, with surveys of both parents and students scheduled to take place in February 2025, and the of staff in March 2025.

“We’ll be sending out notifications,” she said.

“One of the focuses from the district committee (is) how do we gather more feedback, have more participation,” she said.

Maria Streaman, a school mental health specialist who is serving at Miller-Driscoll and Cider Mill Schools through a two-year grant, spoke about the work there.

“My role really is to help support teachers implementing social and emotional learning within their classroom, which they have been doing in all sorts of ways,” she said.

Activities at Cider Mill, she said, have also included a focus on welcoming new students to the school.

“We’re all working toward this common goal to make sure everyone’s feeling welcomed,” Streaman said.

Tanya Leonard, a special education teacher at Middlebrook who’s serving as the school’s point-person on wellness, shared about various activities to improve school climate there, including monthly wellness themes.

“We’ve also started a Climate and Culture Student Advisory that meets with me once a month by grade,” she said.

For teachers, more opportunities for open and clear communication are being put in place, while efforts to increase parent engagement are also part of Middlebrook’s action plan.

Zemo said that the State Department of Education continues to progress in the area of wellness and positive school climate with new and revised policies.

“We’re going to see some legislative changes coming in July of 2025,” she said, including a much stronger emphasis on school districts offering restorative practices for students who instigate problems.

“I’ll probably be back in the spring to talk more about that and what it’s going to look like under the new action plan,” she said.

Zemo said that while there is a lot of positive movement forward, there is still more to come.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “I want to acknowledge that … so we’ll continue.”

Editor’s note: the article was updated with Kim Zemo’s new title. She was recently promoted from district safe school climate coordinator to director of safe school climate, community, wellness and belonging, a new administrative position.