MASSENA -- Massena Central School district officials continue to focus on the district's culture  and climate, once again addressing the topic during a recent board of education meeting.

Members of the Principal Advisory Council met with the School Improvement Team recently so that students and teachers could have a meeting to discuss the current school climate and goals moving forward.

According to Elyse Hoxie, student representative to the board of education, the meetings "went very well" and gave students the chance to meet with teachers in small groups.

We discussed concerns of the climate. Students brought up respect. We talked about the climate data from the survey from last year, and we did that for about 45 minutes. Then we all came together as a big group and we just talked about what was discussed in our smaller groups,” she said.

Hoxie said the meetings were a great opportunity to come to "the same level of understanding each side's concerns with the school and climate" that will allow the district to move forward.

Meetings are also planned for the future, she said.

“Mr. Oliver (Principal Alan Oliver) even mentioned maybe having one or two students be on the same team permanently. So, we’re working on climate every day at the school and I think the meeting went really well. I’ve heard from both sides that the meeting was much needed and everything discussed was really good,” she said.

Climate surveys were disseminated last May to afford families the opportunity to anonymously offer feedback to school officials regarding what they felt the district was doing well and what could be improved upon.

Families with children in more than one building were encouraged to fill out a survey for each individual school.

Officials previously said the survey falls in line with a previous school climate survey that was aimed at identifying the social needs of students. School officials previously said identifying student’s social and emotional needs post-COVID and offering more support to those students in need was a top priority coming into the school year.

PLC Associates, LLC conducted the survey and compared the data with that which was obtained in the first survey they carried out.

Some of the topics covered in this survey included whether staff and students listen to each other, treat each other with respect and whether students can freely offer opinions.

Other topics included whether classroom issues are handled properly and efficiently, whether students are welcomed back to classrooms after disciplining, whether the school helps students solve problems themselves and whether the school staff and teachers help students identify causes and solutions of school problems.