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RICHMOND -- Edison High School will be implementing a new program this fall which aims to reduce high-risk behaviors.
The Edison Local School District has obtained a training and technical assistance grant through the University of Colorado Boulder. Its purpose is to initiate the Botvin LifeSkills Training High School Program -- a single-year curriculum which targets ninth- and 10th-grade students. The program has shown it decreases adolescent substance abuse, violence and other high-risk behaviors.
The grant will defray the cost of program materials, training and technical assistance for life-skills training at the high school for two years. The training will occur during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school terms.
Freshman students will participate in the program, completing 10 sessions during the first year. Additional pupils will receive lessons the second year.
Superintendent Bill Beattie said several teachers will undergo training at summer workshops. The plan is to begin once students return in August. Weekly lessons will occur during the students' English classes, officials said. An independent observer will occasionally review sessions to evaluate the process.
"We were looking for a research-based program to have at the high school and came upon this grant," Beattie said. "There have been positive results at schools around the country."
Assistant Superintendent Julie Kireta, who serves as a site coordinator, along with EHS Assistant Principal Josh Leasure, said the program was a state-approved curriculum for emotional and physical safety and includes a variety of topics such as suicide awareness, violence prevention and inclusion.
"It is evidence-based and has been proven to help districts meet their goals," Kireta stated. "We thought it would be beneficial for students to be taught in a more direct manner." She noted district grantwriter Fatima Smuck made the application and it just made sense to partake in Botvin LifeSkills because it was part of the state's approved program.
"We thought it would be a good opportunity to try it," Kireta said. "Guidance counselors do their own programs, but we wanted to do something that's more evidence-based."
Leasure added students would receive weekly lessons in their English classes. He noted a similar program was enacted in the past through former school resource officer Scott Renforth.
"It worked when Scott was here because he exposed the junior high students to the program," Leasure said. "The current grant pays for training, books and technical assistance. It's reduced behaviors and showed 52-percent lower cases of drug abuse. They had impressive data for what it's going to do."
The district must participate in surveys and site visits, provide student demographics and consider plans for sustaining the life-skills training. The school was assigned an implementation coordinator from Boulder to schedule training dates while three training instructors have been named and will undergo a one-day training workshop.
In addition, a classroom observer will be selected with the assistance of the Jefferson County Educational Service Center. The observer must conduct three observations of each teacher implementing the curriculum each year.
A university representative will visit annually to meet with the principals and life-skills training teachers and attend classroom sessions to gain a better understanding of the site's experiences with the program.
Two types of regional sustainability trainings are going to be offered, including training-of-trainers workshops, and strategic sustainability workshops.
New and returning instructors will participate in training throughout the program's second year. The grant will defray teacher stipends for training and reimburse substitutes when workshops occur during the school year.