North Adams Public Schools -

November 29, 2024

I’ve been the superintendent of North Adams Public School District for eight years, but I’ve been practicing yoga for 30. I started doing yoga as an adult as a form of exercise, not necessarily for the mindfulness aspects. Now, I’m seeing its life-changing benefits unfold across my district — for students, teachers and beyond.

In early 2021, the district was back in school after closing for the pandemic, but my teachers were fried. We serve approximately 1,300 students in four schools and three off-campus sites, including a program for 18- to 22-year-olds with a high level of special needs and pre-K-12 programs for those with social-emotional disabilities and autism. We were all waiting to see if we would get a vaccine for the coronavirus, and everybody was a mess.  

To help teachers de-stress, I took a 200-hour teacher training in mindfulness, social-emotional learning and yoga with Breathe for Change. Educators can integrate these practices into their classrooms and use them to support their own mental and physical health. Everyone who completes the course is certified to teach yoga, so when I finished, I offered my stressed-out teachers a class on Fridays. We met in the library. Everybody spread out and brought their own mat, giving us enough physical distance that we could take our masks off. 

When the first six-week session was done, all 10 teachers said they wanted to continue — and learn to teach yoga themselves. Today, the district has about 46 educators who are certified Breathe for Change facilitators, and our program serves a dual purpose. It helps the teachers help themselves, which empowers them to build a culture of care and trust with their students. And it benefits our students in a variety of ways.

The schools where teachers regularly implement these strategies have seen a significant decrease in chronic absenteeism. At Colegrove Park Elementary, the rate dropped 11% last year, which put the school in the top 10 for attendance statewide. In recognition of this achievement, Colegrove Park was awarded a signed golden basketball from the NBA champion Boston Celtics.

One teacher told me that since she started using mindfulness strategies in her fourth-grade classroom, “I haven’t had a significant disciplinary referral this year.” That’s huge in a district where 71% of the students are identified as high-need. As a former science teacher, I love this kind of qualitative evidence that the program is working. 

At Drury High School, one creative teacher came up with the idea of giving students facing discipline a choice: They could sit in detention or participate in mindfulness and yoga practice. So many took her up on it that the school started offering yoga regularly for all students. 

I asked the football coach to co-present with me to all the teaching assistants, and to see him stand there and say, “I know you need this, because I need this,” was amazing. He talked about his football players and said, “I need them in the zone. And for me to get them into the zone, they have to quiet their mind and be fully present to me so they can hear me and understand what I expect from them.” That was a very powerful moment.

The young adults in our 18- to 22-year-old transition program have also been heavily involved. Many of these students are unable to communicate verbally and will always need some level of supervision in their lives. Teachers use yoga breathing techniques to help calm students who become agitated, and the physical movements provide a form of exercise for those who struggle with physical fitness and control.

The program has also grown beyond the district, through partnerships with other community groups and local nonprofits. For example, we offer a free community yoga class at the library twice a week, which primarily draws senior citizens. The class has a limit of 15 people and is always full. I have seen regular attendees progress from not being able to touch their toes to doing full Sun Salutations. Just after the pandemic, I did a session at the library for parents while their kids went off to a reading. It helped them relax and become more comfortable being around other people again. And I’ve done modified yoga sessions for breast cancer survivors, who often lose mobility in their upper body. We have also partnered with the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to develop a graduate-level course for educators in social-emotional learning, and we have a map to provide evidence-based curriculum for all grade levels. 

For next year, my goal is to step back from leading this initiative and have our core group of certified instructors implement practices in the classroom and train their colleagues. I’m getting to the point in my career where I’m thinking about the legacy I will leave to this district that I’ve loved and served. These yoga and mindfulness practices will be an important part of that.