Stepping Stones is home away from home for many students.
This RMHS program is designed to help students who have had extended absences, usually two weeks or more, transition back into their school schedule. Mrs. Malley, the academic coordinator of the program and Mr. Sacco, the program social worker, can typically be found in either room 320 or 316.
Mrs. Malley described the program as “designed to work with kids who had extended absences, usually five days or more, and it could be for social and emotional reasons.” Overall, Stepping Stones is a great resource for students who need help getting back on track and back into the classroom.
The program would not be successful without the teamwork of Mrs. Malley and Mr. Sacco. Mrs. Malley focuses more on the academic side of things, while Mr. Sacco focuses mainly on the social-emotional side. Mrs. Malley explained, “Mr Sacco does the social-emotional stuff each day or each week and then I do more academic, and I’ll work with their teachers and we also work with parents and the students to help get them caught up. Like if they need to change their schedule, keep their schedule–and it’s usually about two weeks to twelve weeks.”
Before Stepping Stones, Mr. Sacco worked as a guidance counselor. When asked about the transition from his previous role to this one, he said, “There was a job opening for a clinical coordinator here and I had done, I don’t know, seven or eight years in school counseling and I was ready for a little bit of change, so I applied for the job and got the job then moved up here and transitioned here.”
In addition to Stepping Stones, Mrs. Malley and Mr. Sacco also run the new Boost Program that began this school year. Boost is an expanded academic and social emotional support program available to students in Stepping Stones as well as any other student at RMHS. Boost is similar to the academic lab program offered in previous years. Staff found that academic lab was not getting much traction with students and they decided to revamp the idea, which is how Boost was initiated.
Mr. Sacco described Boost as a resource “for any general-ed student who use a boost with their academic or social emotional well being. There are certain students that are assigned to Boost, so they actually have it in their schedule. Mrs. Malley and I kind of do the case management for them, make sure that they are catching up on work, that we are communicating with their teachers. If there’s a test that they need to do, we can help facilitate that. The other part of Boost is the academic support component. That part is for anybody. Anyone can drop in. Historically those were in the library last year but I don’t think it was super well attended. This year it was moved. So we wanted to dedicate space where teachers from all different subjects rotated through to help students so that there is academic support available for all students.”
Boost is located in room 316. Ask your guidance counselor about the Boost program if you think it could help you.
