A squad of educators in the Northern Lehigh Middle School has earned a prestigious distinction.

The school’s assistance program team has won Pennsylvania’s Most Distinguished Secondary SAP team award.

The award is presented to a middle or high school student assistance program team that has gone above and beyond to identify barriers to learning. A team that supports research-based prevention programs, skilled identification, and also fosters positive connections with students, parents, and the community.

Principal David Hauser said the award recognizes the school as having the top student support program in the state, as it’s presented to one secondary school in the state each year.

“A student assistance program team works with educators, families, and students to identify those children in need of extra support beyond the classroom,” Hauser said. “Often, these are due to non-academic factors such as substance abuse, mental health, traumatic experiences, stress, truancy, peer conflicts - anything that has the potential to be a barrier to education.”

Hauser said the award is a true testament to all the hard work the team has put in.

“I am so incredibly proud of my faculty and staff here,” he said. “The Northern Lehigh Middle School Student Assistance Team is highly trained to handle many different situations, but the work is challenging.

“We don’t do the job for accolades, but it is nice to be recognized. My team really deserves it.”

Hauser said the award is given out annually to one secondary school for its efforts to help students in need.

“I think this award shows that great things are happening at Northern Lehigh Middle School,” he said. “We are emerging as a top school in the region - across the state for that matter - in how we support our students.”

Hauser cited several such examples.

“Last year, we became a Brilliant Pathways School of Distinction for the first time for our work in College and Career readiness. We have spent the last two years refining and improving our Student Assistance Program.

“We expanded the team, trained more teachers, developed in-house development, and made several new partnerships with community agencies and experts. The program has really gotten to the next level.”

Hauser said the school’s assistance program team consists of eight members: Shannon Jones, Timothy Weaber, Jason Reinhard, Maria “Maggie” Schaffer, Amanda Bariana, Kim Filipovits, Dawn Tulio, and himself. He said Linda Brown, who retired last school year, was also part of the team that earned the award. Wendy Texter is their SAP liaison from the Lehigh Valley Center for Humanistic Change, and is the person who nominated the team for the award.

“Above all, this recognition shows that we value students as complete people,” he said. “We look at the whole child authentically, and work very hard to support every child coming through our doors.”