SMASH isn’t new — it’s been doing things differently for over 50 years, emphasizing multi-age classrooms, social-emotional learning, looping, and strong adult-child relationships. Jessica Rishe (principal) and Malika Boyer (6th grade teacher) share how the school cultivates trust, responsibility, and belonging across all grade levels — and why it still stands out even as others catch on to ideas like project-based learning and social-emotional learning. Highlights from the conversation include: how multi-age groupings shape student growth and leadership; the importance of a fully informed and integrated parent population; why respect goes much further than titles and first names; how SMASH builds a culture that encourages staff to stay; whether students feel prepared and are able to excel as they move on to more traditional high school environments; can the model scale as the school continues to grow; what influence SMASH has had on the greater community; and a lightning round that will have you feeling lucky! 

Learn more about SMASH: www.smmusd.org/smash

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