Unlock Potential. Find Your Password!
It is School Psychology Awareness Week, and the goal is to illuminate how identifying strength and action passwords can direct students to take steps toward positive change.
Passwords such as imagine, encourage, learn, connect, and contribute can push us forward to help students develop critical academic and social-emotional skills. These words can launch conversations about how to help students and staff unlock resources, reach potential, and develop proactive and preventive skills to thrive in school and in life.
Superintendent Sean Dusek said, “I really appreciate the efforts of our school psychologists and their dedication to our students and schools! If you get a chance this week, please help me in thanking our school psychologists for their work!”
The eleven KPBSD school psychologists serve all of our schools in different ways depending on their needs. From teaching health lessons dealing with social and emotional learning, to doing lunch groups, and providing input at the district level, we strive to unlock potential. We contribute to teams of people to support students with disabilities as well as school teams working to intervene early to prevent problems. We provide risk assessments for students struggling, as well as responding when crisis does hit our schools. We have a wide variety of expertise and can always find ways to support our students, teachers, and staff!
Clayton Holland, Director of Pupil Services said, “School psychologists are known for their role with special education evaluations, but our KPBSD School Psychologists do so much more than that. They do a tremendous amount of work to keep our students safe. Our school psychologist were key to the district development and implementation of our suicide and self-injurious behavior assessments. They help lead school responses to a tragedy or crisis that impacts our staff and students, and are leaders in our school-wide efforts with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and with the implementation of behavior and academic intervention process. The KPBSD school psychologists are leaders in their field and our recognized as such in the state of Alaska. We are proud to have the Alaska School Psychologist of the Year, Dr. Terese Kashi, in our ranks.”
KPSBD Dr. Therese Kashi, Alaska School Psychologist of the Year