School Board approves using Second Step materials for Remainder of the School Year

By Christina Luick NewsGraphic January 3, 2023 cluick@conleynet.com 262-224-4166

CEDARBURG — The Cedarburg School Board of Education approved the Elementary Lifelong Learning Skills course utilizing Second Step resources for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year.

The Cedarburg School District in late September paused the use of the Second Step resources, which was first implemented into the school curriculum for children in kindergarten through fifth grade in 2018. The district said the curriculum was not formally approved by the School Board.

It is a part of the overall social and emotional learning (SEL) that is taught in the Cedarburg Schools.

These 30-minute lessons are taught once a week by classroom teachers for approximately 21 weeks. Parents can opt their children out of these lessons.

The Cedarburg School District’s Curriculum Committee forwarded the issue to the School Board with no recommendation.

Clark said at the curriculum committee in December that the goal of using Second Step materials was to ensure consistency throughout the grades and the schools. Between conversations with Clark and school staff, the amount of lessons originally planned for each grade were reduced by half to approximately 11 lessons.

Clark also said the goal for this spring will be to begin developing their own Cedarburg program where they can identify lesson topics they feel are needed at each grade level and identify and develop specific resources to teach those topics.

Several individuals spoke in favor of the Second Step resources, including Erica Pauly, who is a mother of four elementary students. Pauly said she uses the common language used with Second Step to be consistent with what her children are using in school.

“These are skills that need to be universally taught and reinforced,” she said. “Using common language that they already know and strategies that have been taught prior to an emotionally elevated situation is going to help them solve a problem or a disagreement in an appropriate way.” Board member Kate Noetzel said she appreciates all the work Clark and school staff have done in regards to this but added that she still has an issue with Second Step.

“But with that said, I feel like this is a really fair route to go to get us to this summer where we can look at implementing our own curriculum,” she said.

Board member Laura Stroebel said she is in favor of incorporating social and emotional learning into the classroom rather than setting aside “precious classroom time teaching this.”

The following board members voted to approve the Second Step materials: Board President Rick Leach, Vice President David Krier, Kate Noetzel, Kevin Kennedy and Hani Malek. Board members Laura Stroebel and Elizabeth Charland voted against it.

“These are skills that need to be universally taught and reinforced.”

– Erica Pauly Cedarburg School District parent