Of CSBA’s hundreds of member school districts and thousands of individual school board trustees, many have considered the issue of staff wellness over the past couple of years.

Accordingly, governance teams have turned more attention to providing opportunities for valued staff members to monitor and maintain a healthy state of wellness. Importantly, having employees demonstrate commitment to good mental and physical health practices in turn has measurable positive impacts on students’ health and resulting academic achievement.

In starting or reinvigorating a staff wellness program, boards — having weathered pandemic-related challenges — are uniquely positioned now to identify areas where special emphasis and resources should go.

Questions boards can ask to frame staff wellness planning are:

• How do we make sure staff is informed of existing programs and resources available to them through district benefits packages?
• In what ways can we acknowledge and reward staff wellness milestones?
• What community partnerships can we maximize to add more pathways toward needed stress management practices and other mental health supports for staff?
• Can we find ways to task and support administrators with facilitating an increase in daily physical activities for staff?
• How do we encourage staff to seek out personal mindfulness breaks or other individual ways to “recharge” their batteries and minimize negative effects of stress — before small situations escalate into less manageable crises?
• Are we making sure staff professional development opportunities include topics addressing social-emotional issues, resilience and effects of trauma in addition to robust opportunities geared toward academics?

A simple summing up about the importance of staff wellness and self-care was expressed by a small, rural school district’s human resources director, when she enthusiastically said, “My message is, it’s OK to focus on health without guilt. It’s OK to make sure you are OK without feeling guilty. A happy and healthy workforce, ultimately creates happy and healthy students!”

Two CSBA business affiliates offer related services. Kaiser Permanente offers staff wellness programs and Wellness Together delivers effective mental health services to students online or in person. Learn more at business.kaiserpermanente.org/thrive and wellnesstogether.org.