Thursday, October 1, 2026
Committed to focusing on its students’ mental well-being, the Long Beach school district will take another step toward that goal in September, when the high school opens its Wellness Center.
“Developing the whole child,” as district Superintendent Jennifer Gallagher wrote in email, is the goal.
The Long Beach High School Wellness Center will be in a classroom with a view of the ocean, near the office of Pupil Personnel Services, the school library and the cafeteria. Nicknamed the Well, it will be a place where students can decompress, meditate and connect with adults.
The district allocated $1.5 million to psychological services for the 2025-26 school year, a $46,000 increase over 2024-25.
Students can also pursue wellness-focused educational opportunities, including workshops hosted by community partners and panel discussions centered on stress management, healthy communication skills, digital detox, and fitness and nutrition.
Plans for the center also include the use of therapy dogs as well as fitness challenges, meditation and nature walks.
“We hope to raise awareness around wellness,” Gallagher wrote, “to make talking about wellness a norm for students and staff at our high school, and to provide regular opportunities for our students to focus on making healthy decisions.”
The center is part of an extensive overhaul of the district’s “prevention and intervention” approach to student wellness, which was outlined at the April Board of Education meeting. Two district psychologists will focus on counseling students, revising curriculum to promote student wellness, using the mental health application Counselr to connect students with mental health professionals, and establishing and maintaining partnerships with the PTA and other community organizations.
Counselr is a 24/7 platform featuring algorithmic-based matchmaking — matching users with counselors based on their expertise. It will be accessible to middle and high school students with parental consent, and users will be able to install the app and gain access to immediate support.
“We work hard to make sure that we remember that every child in front of us is someone’s baby, the most cherished person in their lives,” Gallagher wrote. “We want ALL of our students to thrive in all areas — academic, social, emotional, and physical.”
She called Counselr a part of the district’s “toolbox of mental health support for students,” noting that 88 percent of connections made through the app were made by people who had not previously interacted with mental health professionals.
The Board of Education approved increasing opportunities for students to engage by adding more clubs and athletics, and at the elementary level, they created an enrichment program. Trustees have examined instructional practices through a lens of engagement — a key indicator of happiness at every stage of life, particularly in young people.
“Mental health is something we have to focus on,” Board President Alexis Pace said in a statement, “(to) make the system for everybody.”
In the classroom, curriculums have been revised to create opportunities for students to practice and learn wellness. They will learn the importance of self-management and fitness through movement breaks, more physical education, yoga classes and mindfulness programming. The district also created a nature-based, full-day pre-K curriculum called Wondergarten.
There is also a High School Student Wellness Council, as well as a districtwide Wellness Committee, tasked with organizing annual wellness fairs and offering district families food and nutritional information. The committee helped with the planning of the Wellness Center.
To facilitate families’ access to mental health support, the school board and PTA meet monthly. And as part of an annual Mental Health Forum, the PTA and the Wellness Committee co-sponsored a book talk on “The Anxious Generation,” by Jonathan Haidt, which chronicles how smartphones, social media and overprotective parenting have contributed to mental illness in children.
The school district has partnered with organizations such as Long Beach REACH, Long Beach Aware, the Long Beach and Nassau County police departments, Northwell Health, Mount Sinai/South Nassau, and private practitioners.
“These initiatives support the health and wellness of our students, helping maintain an environment where they can focus on learning and being the best they can be,” said school board Trustee Sam Pinto, whose background includes serving in the Coast Guard, as a firefighter and as a paramedic. “Our goal is to prepare the kids for success in life. Dealing with stress and mental health concerns is a real issue in all arenas. Being able to cope with and handle the adversity of being challenged will help their overall growth and success with real-world challenges.”
Have an opinion on the district’s mental health initiatives? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.
