Lessons from the Pandemic: Recharging Educators and How the Wellness Fair Became a Big Win for Staff
June 25, 2025
Author
This is the eighth part of a twenty-one blog series, 5 Years Later: Lessons, Innovation, and the Future of Public Education, exploring how PreK-12 education has evolved and what lessons we carry forward. This series will highlight the resilience, creativity, and strategic adaptations that have redefined public education since the pandemic. View the full schedule and roster of contributors
Post COVID, the lives of educators can feel like a constant hustle. Scroll through social media and you鈥檒l see it鈥攔eels and posts about burnout, feeling underappreciated, under attack, and, sadly, walking away from the profession altogether. Every year, more legislation rolls in at the state and federal levels, often paired with sweeping funding cuts. It鈥檚 no wonder it can feel like we鈥檙e barely staying afloat.Listening and Learning
In 2022, I stepped into my role as Superintendent of Ball-Chatham CUSD5 in Chatham, Illinois. As I began my listening tour with district administrators, directors, and staff leaders, I kept hearing the same message: 鈥淲e want to feel valued and heard. We want to love our jobs again.鈥�
The question I kept circling back to was: How do we support our staff and shift the focus from what we can鈥檛 control to what we can?
A New Vision for Professional Development Days
It started with a few small but meaningful changes. Since open enrollment was around the corner, we added voluntary accident and critical illness coverage, promoted the use of virtual doctor visits, and made sure everyone knew how to access their Employee Assistance Program. It was a good start鈥攂ut it wasn鈥檛 enough.
Our district had four school improvement half-days built into the year鈥攖ypically used for curriculum planning, policy updates, and large-group meetings. Previously, in a thoughtful gesture, the district had brought in a yoga instructor and a chair massage therapist during one of these afternoons to help staff decompress. The gesture was appreciated, but I couldn鈥檛 help thinking: We can do more.
Identifying Staff Needs
After looking deeper, we identified three core areas of stress for our staff:
When we support the people who care for our students, everyone benefits.
Physical health
Mental well-being
Financial stability
That realization led us to reimagine one of those school improvement days鈥攏ot as another meeting-heavy afternoon, but as a full-on Wellness Fair for every staff member in the district.
Building the Wellness Fair
We partnered with our local Chamber of Commerce and were able to bring together more than 40 organizations and vendors. In a single afternoon, staff could:
Get basic health screenings like hearing tests and thyroid checks
Schedule appointments with hard-to-access specialists, like pediatricians and sleep doctors
Talk with representatives from TRS and IMRF about retirement planning
Meet with financial advisors and open college savings accounts
Sip on protein smoothies, enter giveaways, and knock out their to-do list鈥攁ll in one place
One elementary teacher told me she was nearly in tears after finally scheduling a doctor鈥檚 appointment for her child鈥攕omething she鈥檇 been trying to do for months. Another staff member got clarity on her retirement questions without having to spend hours on hold.
The Power of Feeling Supported
Those kinds of moments remind us: when we support the people who care for our students, everyone benefits.
We鈥檝e now hosted this fair three years in a row, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Staff look forward to it. They feel seen, supported, and appreciated. And students benefit from educators who feel a little more refreshed and a lot more cared for.
The best part? It takes about 10鈥�15 hours to coordinate鈥攎ostly reaching out to vendors (who are excited to connect with 700+ potential clients). The setup is simple: tables, chairs, signs, and a few email reminders.
The return on investment? Huge.
A Message That Matters
For us, this isn鈥檛 just about wellness. It鈥檚 about saying, 鈥淵ou matter.鈥�
And sometimes, that鈥檚 all people need to hear to feel a little more whole.
