At Herbert Hoover Middle School, students stop in to the wellness center when they need a break.
"You just feel calmer when you walk in," says eighth grader Maile Bellet. "It's a safe place. Everyone likes it."
Hoover opened its wellness center last year. The space is beautiful.
"We have like those rainbow prism things on some of the windows, so we get gorgeous light coming in," says Vice Principal Julia Coffa. "If you peek out the window in just the right direction, you can see the ocean."
The space has comfy couches, a table, and some offices for confidential conversations. It’s only been around for a year but the students here today love it, including Coffa’s child, Sienna Barber, who attends Hoover.
"Anyone can come here and just chill or have fun with their friends or talk to someone if they need to," Barber says.
This was the case for seventh grader Olivia Huang. "This year, I kind of went through some public humiliation and then when I came here, they helped me get over some drama and I felt better," she says.
Huang's classmate, Josue Garcia Moreno, sums up the feeling these students have: "I actually felt like I belong here," he says.
Students, like Cerenity Wilson, use the space to take a break when they need it. "Sometimes I wasn't having the best time in my classes, so I would just come here and take like a five minute break and relax, drink some water," she says.
The wellness center is staffed by a nurse, a counsellor, and a community health outreach worker or "Chow." Sally Nelson is the Chow at Hoover.
Chows like Nelson manage this communal space — so she keeps track of who uses it and organizes events in partnership with student leaders.
"Any student that's coming in checks in with me," Nelson says.
Ginny Fang, President of Spark SF Public Schools. says that "Chows" like Nelson are really "at the heart of the wellness centers — they connect the casual conversations from a student to real need and services."
Spark SF Public Schools, a local nonprofit and school district partner, gave the money to fund Nelson’s position and Hoover’s wellness center.
And actually, Spark SF has funded wellness centers in every SFUSD middle and K-8 school. The program cost $15 million and started with pilots programs at Visitacion Valley Middle School and Francisco Middle School in 2022.
Hoover's wellness center opened last year.
An anonymous donor gave the money for the program. Fang says this person doesn't have a child in the district.
But the funding for the wellness center program is set to expire in 2026.
"The Board of Education has kind of made it clear that my role is not seen, not deemed necessary, and they will not continue to fund it," Nelson says.
A district spokesperson said that continued philanthropic support is the way to sustain the initiative beyond the first $15 million "given the district's ongoing fiscal constraints."
There are currently 16 wellness centers at district middle schools. But their future is uncertain.
