BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Tracey Hirner is the newly appointed supervisor of Social and Emotional Health Services for the Bethlehem Area School District.
The position was created with the help of federal pandemic funds to assist those in the district’s 22 schools.
“I think educators, in general, continue to face severe effects in the classroom of what we're seeing in regards to both trauma, and equity and poverty issues and this pandemic has just really exacerbated all of those issues,” Hirner says.
She will work with staff and students in grades K through 12 in all 22 of the district’s schools.
“We're going to have an opportunity to really hone in on how to help not only students, but families, teachers, to resocialize, work on their emotional regulations and ultimately be more successful in the classroom,” she says.
She says her team will use restorative practices at the secondary level,.and at the elementary level they’ll reboot their ‘leader in me’ programming.
Hirner hopes to put practices in place that work within the curriculum in each school.
Hirner will officially take the supervisor position July 1 when she leaves her role as the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School principal.