by Jeremy Tepper, AIU Communications Specialist
Since Megan Van Fossan started as Sto-Rox's superintendent, she has made it her goal to provide proper supports for each and every student.
On Monday, June 5th, Van Fossan gathered several Sto-Rox employees and community partners to assess their progress on that goal. That group of people — known as the Student Success Team — included 28 school district participants and 10 outside agencies.
“Our goal was to come together after the school year, and really collaborate and analyze what went well during the school year and areas that we need to really grow to better serve our community,” Van Fossan said. “We provided an opportunity to reflect on our practices, our procedures, our programming, and come up with additional ways to better support kids and families moving into 2024.”
Monday’s meeting included discussions facilitated by Van Fossan, as well as Shannon Fagan, Licia Lentz and Michael Jones from the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU). Throughout the day, the team collaborated to discuss the district’s strengths and challenges and to map out plans for the next school year.
From Van Fossan’s perspective, one of the main challenges the district faced this past school year was making various support systems more ingrained in Sto-Rox's programming. Progress was made as the year went on, and Van Fossan expects that trajectory to continue.
“We built all of these programs — or we worked with our community partners to build these programs — so that families had options for after school care. During the school day, the programming that we designed was primarily around social emotional learning and mental health,” Van Fossan. “We provided options for in school therapy that was at no cost to parents. We provided group therapy at no cost to parents. We provided students with online access to therapists, if they didn't want to participate in what we offered during the school day. We really listened deeply, and then we said to our providers, ‘here's what the needs are.’”
Having worked in student services and education for quite some time, Van Fossan is aware that her goals are ambitious. But as the years have passed — especially after the COVID-19 pandemic — districts have become more keenly aware of the needs of their students. As such, Van Fossan has made it her mission to meet the moment.
“What I really wanted to do when I came to Sto-Rox is to provide proper services for every student.” she said. “I want to have systems and programming available for every child to be very specialized, very targeted, instead of a one-size fits all."
“In many districts, that's hard to do because maybe they're so large, or it’s not an area that they've identified as a need. We absolutely know in our community based on surveys and focus groups and town hall meetings that these are the needs of our kids and families.”
To meet that goal, Van Fossan said communication and collaboration is imperative. Monday’s meeting represented a big step in that direction. And given just how many thoughtful and caring people Van Fossan was able to gather in one room, she left feeling inspired and optimistic.
“We're invested, and I think the investment is really a big piece of this puzzle. It's not just phoning it in, it's not just an email of support. They're showing up,” Van Fossan said. “Our partners know our families and they know what they need. They provide things very quickly. That's a significant bright spot when you have people that are willing to come to the table and show up to do the work.”
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This article is part of a series of pieces influenced by Sto-Rox’s partnership with Project SEEKS SES involving the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Allegheny County Health Department. Jeremy Tepper is a Communications Specialist with the AIU highlighting SEEKS initiatives in Sto-Rox and other local school districts.
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