Clarke Central High School Principal’s Secretary LaToya Hill addresses audience members in the E.B. Mell Auditorium on Feb. 27, 2024 at the 2024 Black History Month celebration. Hill helped organize an initiative called Wellville at CCHS to boost faculty and staff’s mental health. “In the midst of COVID and all of the things that were happening around the world, people were kind of re-evaluating their choices, and (that was) in terms of career, as well. So, the whole initiative was to make people feel better about the spaces that they operate and work in,” Hill said. Photo by Aza Khan
CCHS Wellville, a wellness initiative, was introduced on Nov. 11, 2024 to support staff members’ mental health.
Clarke Central High School Principal’s Secretary LaToya Hill sent a notice on Nov. 11, 2024 to CCHS staff email accounts introducing a new mental health initiative: CCHS Wellville.
Located in the CCHS Administrative Suite, Wellville is a converted office space equipped with various items meant for decompression, available to faculty and staff for scheduled 15-minute appointments twice a month. According to Hill, who helped organize the initiative, it is a response to the widespread shift in the way people began to view mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A picture of Wellville, a converted office space in the Clarke Central High School Administrative Suite on Dec. 9 is shown. Wellville was a response to the new stressors placed on staff and faculty alike after the COVID-19 pandemic. “COVID was a game changer,” science department teacher Matthew Regester said. “I feel like after that, it was harder, especially those first couple (of) years, navigating the return to school. That probably drove a good amount of people outside of the profession.” Photo by Adah Hamman
“Wellville was created (because of) a district initiative that we received information (about): that they were going to allot a certain amount of funds to each school for wellness purposes,” Hill said. “(Around) July of 2023, they were giving or aligning $5,000 per school to begin (a) wellness initiative, but there were certain criteria that you had to (follow, like) vendors that you had to use for the stuff that you purchased.”
Another requirement was that Hill had to create and distribute a survey asking what faculty and staff members wanted to see in the space. As a result, Wellville, which is open Monday through Friday during regular school hours, includes a massage chair, coloring books, and other items meant to relieve stress.
“Our culture here is that we’re more than just co-workers. We’re family,” Hill said. “(Wellville) is just one more layer to that, and it builds morale because it does show staff members that we do care about their health and wellness. It’s just one more thing I think that (CCHS) does well when it can and when it comes to employee satisfaction.”
Science department teacher Matthew Regester, who was named CCHS’ Teacher of the Year in 2022, has seen the stress placed on his fellow teachers during his five years at CCHS.
“The positives of teaching is that you have so much reward, but you do have a good amount of stress, too, and coping with that is difficult, and that’s why I think an initiative like Wellville (is beneficial). It’s great to have the option to use it for someone who does prefer those more physical steps to stress release,” Regester said.
“(The wellness room) builds morale because it does show staff members that we do care about their health and wellness. It’s just one more thing I think that (CCHS) does well when it can and when it comes to employee satisfaction.”
— LaToya Hill,
Clarke Central High School Principal’s Secretary
Hill encourages CCHS staff to take advantage of the resources available to them in Wellville to help reduce the stress they may experience.
“(CCHS Family Engagement Specialist Christian) Barner often tries to incentivize staff to write positive postcards and things of that nature, and he’ll give them a free planning period (for) time away from doing their regular teacher stuff (or) you could get one hour in the wellness room,” Hill said. “We think that we’re doing the right thing, and we’re just trying to incorporate any little thing that will help (keep) good teachers around.”
