Climate and culture team aims for reform at Worcester East Middle School

WORCESTER — Alex Alario is in his first year working in Worcester Public Schools, working as a climate and culture coordinator at Worcester East Middle School. The position was newly created for this school year, as part of a series of reforms in student discipline that have been instituted by Superintendent Rachel Monárrez.

Part of Alario’s job is checking in on a shortlist of students each day who have been brought to his team’s attention for a variety of reasons, some of which are discipline-related, but others who are struggling academically due to anxiety, home-related issues or other personal problems.

While checking on one of his students during a gym class, Alario saw the student intensely engaged in a game with his classmates.

“I’ll check in on him later,” Alario said. “One of the things he has told me that motivates him in school is gym class, so I wouldn’t want to pull him out in the middle of something where he is so engaged.”

Alario’s position was created with the idea of giving students an adult figure in the school who can handle different social and behavioral problems impacting students that are somewhat removed from the direct discipline of students. While administrators at Worcester East including Dean of Students Teresa DiStefano, who oversees the climate and culture coordinators, hand out consequences for negative actions, the climate and culture coordinators work to forge strong personal relationships with students who may require extra attention from the district for a variety of reasons.

“I see my role where for me I am dealing with students when it comes to discipline, to kind of see different sides of things,” DiStefano, who previously served as an assistant principal at North High School before coming to Worcester East, said. “For example, when looking at discipline a lot of people look at consequences, but we are not just thinking of consequences, we are thinking how did we get to this behavior, what is the root cause of the problem, how the student can change their behavior and have a more positive experience here at the middle school.”

The Telegram & Gazette followed Alario and his fellow climate and culture coordinator Aisha Nelson throughout the school day May 22. Throughout the day the two tackle a wide range of tasks related to seventh and eighth grade students in the school.

Some of the tasks are more remedial than others, such as escorting students to and from the bathroom, a consequence some students face for being caught wandering the halls. Others involve direct education, such as a seminar that was held during the day for three students who were caught vaping in school.

“These students otherwise would have faced suspension. Instead they were going through this seminar to educate them better on the harmful choice they have made,” DiStefano said.

During lunch period, Nelson and DiStefano met with two students who were having a conflict with another student, a student they have historically been friends with. Together they discussed the roots of the conflict and how they can avoid it leading to distractions in their school work — a shift in what DiStefano said is a move toward the district being more proactive in combating student behavior as opposed to be reactive with punishments after issues manifest.

“We have these conversations and meetings, and I think we want to be able to leave the meeting saying they don’t have to be friends, but they need to leave this meeting being able to co-exist without conflict,” DiStefano said. “We have students where they will approach us and tell us that something is happening, and we can bring the students together before something happens and they can hash it out before it takes place in a classroom.”

Both Alario and Nelson are Worcester natives who still live in the city. Nelson, in her 30s, is a veteran working with students, having previously worked in the districts alternative school programs before taking the job at Worcester East. Alario, in his early 20s, said it is first job in education and he aims to be a teacher.

Together, they run the wellness room at Worcester East, a converted classroom. Students can be sent to the wellness room by staff and engage with Nelson and Alario if they are stressed, feeling anxious or have acted inappropriately in class. The room is also used to host prescheduled programs such as the vaping seminar or the lunch meet-up with students.

“We tend to let the students come in and pick who they are going to gravitate towards and a lot of the time the girls tend to come to me and the boys to Alex,” Nelson said.

Nelson said that she believes that since herself and Alario are specifically not teachers, it can allow students to open up more easily if issues may be going on socially or at home that may lead to poor performance in school.

“I think students are more open to talking to us, more than when I was working at the alternative school. I think there they just have a shield up,” Nelson said. “Here I think we are able to build stronger relationships with the student. I try my best to dress a little bit more like a student. I wear sneakers and I think students might see me wearing Jordans and relate a bit more, which leads to them opening up.”

Students on CICO system

A majority of the day is spent on what Worcester East calls CICO (Check-In, Check-Out) system. A small number of students (Alario said five students are in the program) are monitored by the climate and culture team, checking in once per day with each student. Each student also has a CICO form, where after each class a teacher will give a quick grade to the student based on their performance in class that day.

The form gives the climate and culture team up-to-date information if a student is having a good or bad day in the classroom and they can discuss it directly with the student during their check in. Continued good performance can lead to an incentive, such as playing a game of UNO, which Alario did with one student at the end of the school day Thursday, May 22. Students remain on the system until designated by a school adjustment counselor.

While some students are on the system due to bad behavior in the classroom, other students are on the system because the school has identified slipping grades and withdrawn classroom performance.

“I think he just struggles interacting with other students and making friends,” Alario said of one student in the system. “We’ve noticed that his grades have gone down, which is disappointing because I know he is a bright kid. We’ve been encouraging him to try and branch out more and talk to the other kids in class.”

DiStefano said that at Worcester East, the buy-in from school staff has been strong, as they have identified the value the climate and culture team has brought to the school. DiStefano cited data, stating that one-time out of school suspension offenses have decreased year over year and fighting infractions have dropped by 15% year over year.

“We haven’t gotten any negative feedback from staff. Worcester East is a very tight-knit community and the staff has bought into our initiatives. I think staff really appreciate that there is another intervention to help our students,” DiStefano said. “Teachers have been very supportive of it. They will reach out to an administrator, let us know if a student is having an issue and if we determine they need it, we can intervene.”

Phil Giarusso is a physical education teacher at Worcester East, having spent the last 22 years at the school, whose barking voice booms throughout the old gymnasium at the school, thinly masking an obvious care for the students.

“The (climate and culture team) has done a real nice job. It’s been a good move from this administration,” Giarusso said. “I think a big thing with them is that they are young. I’m 67 years old. I can’t necessarily relate to students in the same way that they can.”