Please provide an update on the BE Well 365 rollout.

Question#: 21

ANSWER:

The Be Well 365 framework developed through cross-office collaboration was introduced during the 2018-2019 school year to ensure that all MCPS students attend schools and classrooms where the curriculum, programs, and strategies foster academic success and physical, social,
and psychological growth and development.

A summary of activities that have occurred during the rollout and implementation of Be Well 365 as well as plans for the remainder of the school year follow.  Further details will be included in a forthcoming memorandum to the Board of Education.

6 Essentials:  Monthly Focus

  • November 2019: Mental Health and Awareness Month
    • On November 9, 2019, the Office of Student and Family Support and Engagement (OSFSE) partnered with the Montgomery County School Psychologist Association to hold the second annual Mental Health Fair at Gaithersburg High School with more than 400 people in attendance, including families, students, and community members; 32 organizations provided information at tables and through breakout sessions.
    • One hundred seventy-two schools submitted a report on their activities for Mental Health Week (week of November 11, 2019).
  • December 2019 and January 2020 focused on the Character Education and Empathy essential. Our focus was on Bullying Prevention.

Be Well 365 Course on myMCPS

In the spring 2019, OSFSE and the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs (OCIP) worked with teams of teachers, school counselors, and instructional specialists to develop Be Well 365 Learning Experiences and Global Experiences to provide instruction and examples on integrating the 6 Essentials into the classroom.

Be Well Talks

OSFSE, the Office of Communications and MCPS-TV have started developing Be Well Talks, a collection of short videos (1–3 minutes) featuring MCPS staff members who illustrate the importance of integrating the 6 Essentials of the Be Well 365 framework into the classroom and school experience. The 6 Essentials of Be Well 365 are focused on building students’ skills in the following areas:  (1) becoming positive members of the school and broader community; (2) learning to manage emotions; (3) building academic and social resilience; (4) identifying and accessing support for themselves or a friend; (5) resolving conflict peacefully; and (6) making positive decisions. Videos will be made available to MCPS staff through the myMCPS Be Well 365 course and to the public through social media.

MCPS School Implementation

MCPS school leadership is taking on the work of implementing Be Well 365 in their own schools, adapting to the needs of their students. Through messages from principals, administrators, school counselors, and other school-based staff members, as well as social media postings, we are seeing a variety of creative and instructive implementation of the framework.

Project G.R.A.D.:  Project G.R.A.D. is staffed with two program specialists supporting 17 high schools with implementing tiers 2 and 3 level intervention programs to assist and support students to graduate; all of the schools are designated Targeted Schools for Improvement
(TSI; MSDE Report Card 2019).

Administrator on Duty––November 2019–December 2019: One of the 6 Essentials emphasizes mental health. In recognition of the need for that emphasis to extend to our school leadership, OSFSE offered principals the opportunity to participate in an “Administrator on Duty” day,
in which an OSFSE leader attended to their school for a chosen day.

The spring and summer of 2020 will find OSFSE staff working to solidify the 6 Essentials, reaching across offices to procure and ensure a multidisciplinary approach, and solidifying the student voice metric to support the Be Well 365 work.