Nikolas Tsamoutalid (Niko, as his friends call him) is a proud and unapologetic hope dealer. As the  Administrator of Student Supports and Wellness in the Bethlehem Area School District (BASD) in Pennsylvania, he is responsible for helping to create a culture of hope and wellness that allows students and teachers to thrive, and it is working. People outside the district are taking notice and reaching out to learn more about what they are doing. As he said during our conversation, “we haven’t gone through everything we have, not to share it.” As a true hope dealer, Niko understands that you can’t succeed without hope and the best way to spread hope is to help others succeed.

The city of Bethlehem is located in eastern Pennsylvania within the Lehigh Valley, considered a bellwether of the state, because as Lehigh Valley votes so goes the state. The city was home to Bethlehem Steel, the second largest producer of steel in the country, which ceased operations in 1995. With the help of an influx of immigrants and refugees, the city has remade itself. The school district is a microcosm of the city. It is the sixth largest in the state, and its student body is ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. Forty eight percent of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch. The students in the district are: 

• 44.4% Hispanic/Latino

• 39.3% White 

• 11.1% Black 

• 2.8% Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander

• 2.0% Two or more races

• 0.2% American Indian, Alaska Native

• 0.2% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. 

The road to where they are today started back in 2017.  Niko was an assistant principal at Liberty High School, the largest high school in the district. He was hearing from teachers, including some of the most engaged and experienced, that were struggling to teach lesson plans because of disengaged students who weren’t comprehending and retaining the information. Enough of them were speaking up that he and the principal knew they had to do something. 

How Can We Be Better Humans?

They started studying the science of resilience and then asked themselves, what would it take to become a trauma-informed school?  That question led them to the work of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, an expert on childhood trauma and the current Surgeon General for the state of California. They also watched Paper Tigers, a documentary about a school in Washington that addressed toxic stress, radically changed its approach to discipline and got significantly better outcomes for its students. What they learned about trauma and toxic stress was the motivation they needed to start what would become a five-year experiment.

Niko describes Dr. Harrison Bailey III,  the principal he was working with, who was named the 2021 Pennsylvania Secondary Principal of the Year, and with whom he continues to collaborate, as a visionary, while he describes himself as an executioner, which makes them a good fit. A lot of visions fail to become reality and die on the table of execution, so they went slow. They educated the administrative team about becoming a trauma-informed school and formed a leadership team to start rolling it out to the rest of the school.

They knew they were asking a lot of the teachers, so their approach was to “touch someone’s heart before asking for their hand.” They provided teachers with training about the Adverse Childhood Experiences, and asked teachers and administrators to complete the Adverse Childhood Experience questionnaire. They then shared the results in aggregate to help everyone understand the trauma in their school community. The results were powerful with 28% reporting they grew up with someone who was depressed, mentally ill or attempted suicide and 31% reporting they experienced unwanted sexual contact. Sharing the results helped the administrators and teachers be more empathetic toward each other by understanding that there were survivors among them. It made them curious about trauma their students were experiencing, and to think about the vicarious trauma teachers experience from their students. It pushed them to ask, how can we be better humans?

They became even more committed to creating a culture of wellness and hope once the pandemic hit, because it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. But they resisted moving too quickly, creating unrealistic expectations and alienating people they needed to be successful.

Can’t Take It Personally

Once school resumed after the lockdown with everyone wearing masks, they started offering school-wide, two-minute pauses four times each day to allow students, teachers and administrators time to focus on their breath and reset. Research shows that just five minutes a day of intentional breathing to quiet the mind can decrease anxiety by up to 22%. It was an easy thing to do, and when teachers and students understood the benefits, many embraced it. 

They then began training teachers on the core competencies of social-emotional learning (SEL) and are in the process of integrating it into their academic instruction because of the benefits to students. They knew making it an add-on to academic instruction wouldn’t work. They also knew this was a big ask of the teachers and making it mandatory wouldn’t be received well. So Niko and the administrative team relied on the relationships they had with teachers in the school to recruit staff that embraced the opportunity for growth with the training and then recruit a colleague who was curious about it. Once those teachers were trained, they were asked to recruit one colleague who wanted to go through the training and one who was curious. Taking this organic, bottom up approach didn’t result in everyone being trained, but it resulted in many being trained with the goal of reaching a tipping point. Eventually, teachers will be evaluated on teaching to the SEL competencies integrated within their instruction and respective content.

What they learned about trauma’s impact on the brain helped administrators and teachers understand that they can’t take a student’s behavior personally when they act out. They taught and encouraged staff to apply the 3Rs - regulate, relate and reason - to better engage with and support students by understanding that they can’t relate or reason with a student who is dysregulated or in fight, flight, or freeze mode. 

A Wellness Center, which Niko calls an outpost of hope, was created within the school where students can meet with therapists. It includes a Peace Room where dysregulated students can connect with graduate-student therapists to get help regulating themselves and return to class. They also started support groups that promote mental health, connection and community.

The results of these changes are pretty remarkable and indisputable. Their data shows that:

• 83% of their students are more hopeful about their future.

• 97% of the students trust the adult that is supporting them in the Wellness Center.

• 56% of students feel more connected to the school thanks to the support and help they get through the Wellness Center.

Also, grades among students receiving therapy or support have improved and behaviors that could have previously resulted in severe punishment or suspensions have decreased. Even more remarkable is the quadrupling of support groups and Peace Room supervision were all budget neutral.

Part of Something Bigger

Modifying disciplinary practices to take a restorative justice approach, so students have the chance to learn and grow from their harmful actions, is another step they took. Middle school students who commit a first-time offense that would have resulted in a hearing with the school district magistrate, go through a Formal Restorative Justice process at their school where they are evaluated for trauma and resiliency. Administrators and school personnel then formulate a contract with the student to grow as an individual in the hopes of reducing the risk that they will cause future harm. Teachers and administrators are also trained in restorative justice practices and developed processes and language to help students understand the impact of the harm they caused, increase their self awareness and empathy while also holding them accountable. These changes have helped create a shared understanding that accountability doesn’t always have to equal punishment. However, severe offenses that necessitate punishment are still coupled with restorative justice so the student can be reintegrated properly back into the school community. 

Niko is grateful to take the success they had at the high school and spread it across the district, but the work isn’t easy. Every school is different. What is working in one school, another may not be ready for yet. Funding remains tight, which makes it all the more important for him to have strong relationships with teachers, administrators and community partners, so they can work together to be creative and resourceful in getting therapists and other mental health resources into the schools. Also, they don’t have enough mental health professionals in the schools that reflect all of the students needing services. But as a hope dealer, Niko knows that he is part of something bigger than himself and success is possible as long as they continue to work hard and creatively seek solutions and partnerships.

Today, students in the district have access to:

• Rigorous academic instruction infused with social-emotional learning.

• Four two-minute pauses throughout the day to focus on breathing and reset.

• Student support groups to talk about obstacles and barriers led by a trained mental health professional.

• Access to mental health counselors and psychiatric services and medication management if needed.

Public schools don’t get to cherry pick their students like charter and private schools can. They are responsible for educating every child that walks through the door. Too many children are showing up for school in fight or flight mode, which makes it hard for teachers to teach and children to learn. Also, too many young people are learning to deal with conflict by simply unfriending or blocking someone being aggressive.

Experience and faith have taught Niko every human being places their hope in something and asks that it deliver something. He says if we don’t realize our hopes, it’s because they’re the wrong hopes, and we need to ask ourselves, “Where have I placed my hope and what carries my hope?” He practices and encourages having hope in something bigger than ourselves since our personal resources are limited.

This work is deeply personal to Niko. It’s about addressing the invisible pandemic of the soul. His parents were traumatized refugees after World War II, but rarely talked about the trauma and horrors they experienced under Nazism and Communism. He credits his mom who lived her life with grace and faith with nurturing his faith and hope. His wife nurtures his hope as a cancer survivor who inspires and supports others to be better humans. His kids inspire and motivate him to keep working to create a better future. His work is uncovering the spark of hope in people who feel unloved, uncared for, isolated and lonely, so they feel connected to community and realize they have the power to make a better future for themselves and others. That is what being a hope dealer is all about.

Learn More

Niko and Dr. Harrison Bailey III will be presenting at the United: The National Conference on School Leadership July 15 - 17 in Nashville, TN.

Visit  BASDschools to learn more about the district and community