District staff told the EPR committee on Dec. 4 that they plan to embed social-emotional learning (SEL) into curriculum-writing rather than rely on stand‑alone software programs.

One presenter summarized conversations with administrators about SEL and said the district had broken CASEL’s five competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making) into skills and asked administrators to identify where those skills would live in curriculum and teaching practice. The presenter said the goal is to pick the ‘‘two most important foundational skills within all five of those categories’’ and create a list of ten priorities to start a sustainable, multi-year infusion of SEL into course plans.

Staff stressed that SEL should not be ‘‘one more thing’’ in teachers’ schedules and said work has been done to map SEL competencies to the district’s teacher-evaluation rubric so SEL instruction would be embedded under existing instructional expectations.

The committee also received a summary of classroom walkthrough data: principals were asked to complete at least one documented walkthrough per teacher each quarter; the disaggregated data showed high levels of teacher enthusiasm and student engagement, but staff noted many contextual variables and emphasized using the data to guide targeted professional development. Presenters also recounted a Nov. 4 teacher wellness day (yoga, Zumba, keynote speaker, therapy dogs) and a successful career-day event at High School South involving 27 career presentations and more than 250 students.

Staff said they will continue refining SEL priorities, bring a consultant to unpack SEL with department chairs, and embed SEL competencies into curriculum-writing as the long-term approach.