Can Florida Keys teachers make time to chill out in a ‘zen’ room? Their bosses hope so
Where can a hard-working teacher in the Florida Keys find a moment of peace during the school day?
Welcome to the Wellness Room, a spot with relaxation gear such as massage chairs, low lighting, comfortable seats, sound or water fountain machines, and on the side tables a few succulents and electric candles.
The concept is simple — create a space for Monroe County School District teachers, and all staff, to take a breather during a stressful workday.
You won’t confuse one of these rooms with a luxury spa, and several were set up in teacher break rooms. But they’re built with a similar intention.
“My favorite is one of the recliners,” said Cyndi Seiler, 59, a teacher’s aide at Poinciana Elementary in Key West. “We get a lunch break, so this is where we come. It’s quiet and you can relax. You get to decompress in here.”
Seiler will spend her lunch break in the lounge, and take time for one of the recliners that doubles as a massage chair. Poinciana’s space has cellphone chargers built into a sofa, and blue-sky-and-cloud-decorated panels that cover the harsh fluorescent lights above.
‘Your health comes first’
Seven public schools in the Keys now have the zen rooms, adding $200 recliners and the laid-back decor to teacher lounges because space is tight on campus.
“A place to recharge between classes,” the school district described the rooms in a Facebook post. “They will enjoy a zen-like experience.”
Monroe County schools, where the starting salary for a Keys teacher is $51,800 a year, are short about 18 teachers and 17 aides. Schools have long been harried places for teachers, staff and students. But with the pandemic still hovering and the Keys housing crisis only worsening, next-level stress abounds.
So does a teacher swamped with paperwork and lesson plans and, likely in the Keys, working a second job have time to kick back in a massage recliner?
“We’re not saying give up your planning period,” said Nicole Smith, one of three assistant principals at Key West’s Horace O’Bryant School, which has 150 staff members that include 88 teachers.
School employees would be helping their students by making time for a wellness break, Smith said, even if it’s for 15 minutes.
“If it means taking a few minutes and regrouping versus taking a day off, I’m going to err on taking a few minutes and using that relaxation room,” said Smith, who came in over the summer to finish setting up the rooms, which included painting a wall.
Smith said she hasn’t used the room yet in the first days of school. And, after working 25 years in public education, which includes a decade in the Keys, she identifies with any teacher who is skeptical.
“As a teacher, I was one of those people,” she said. “I worked all day. ... That’s not the best way to teach.”
A contract gives teachers a 30-minute break during the day, and that is when staff and faculty are encouraged to dip into the Wellness Room.
“Your health definitely has to come first,” Smith said. “It’s not being used a lot right away but it’s definitely there and it’s definitely available.”
DIY wellness rooms
The seven rooms were funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation and developed in partnership with the nonprofit Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition. No school district money was spent.
The Wellness Rooms were a do-it-yourself project at Horace O’Bryant School, Poinciana Elementary, Gerald Adams Elementary and Key West High School, all in Key West. Marathon Middle/High School and Stanley Switlik Elementary in the Middle Keys city of Marathon have them, along with Key Largo School in the Upper Keys.
Staff put together furniture, painted walls and decorated on their own time, spending weekends getting them ready before school started in Monroe County on Aug. 10.
“I put these chairs together myself,” said Erin Williams, the district’s coordinator of student support, while showing the Poinciana wellness space to a visitor. Principal Tara Whitehead was part of the work crew.
At Horace O’Bryant, the Wellness Room is in a special spot: The “Purple Room” got its nickname for having purple furniture back in the day.
“The Purple Room is a new, quaint little oasis tucked away in the HOB media room,” said Laura Dockery, who teaches sixth-grade social studies at the school. “When you enter the room, you’ll see electric lighted candles and hear the soft sound of falling water. There are comfy recliners and relaxing massage lounge chairs.”
Dockery, who has been teaching for 12 years and is in her second year at the K-8 Horace O’Bryant, said it’s a place to escape from stress, even for a brief spell.
“Just be mindful of your time, as you’ll want to stay all day,” she joked.
‘We want to show them we care’
Sugarloaf School, Plantation Key School and Coral Shores High School don’t have a chill room yet.
“The hard part is finding the useful space,” Williams said. “We don’t take any space away from kids. This is why we use lounges. They can sit in these hard chairs, or they can come chill out.”
The Wellness Rooms started off as a pilot project at Switlik Elementary last school year. Williams sought additional rooms for the 2022-2023 school year.
““People are doing multiple jobs and it’s gotten very stressful,” Williams said. “It’s been getting that way for years. The pandemic exacerbated it, obviously. It’s a stressful profession to begin with and it’s just progressively getting worse.”
The Keys school district promotes healthy living and wellness for employees, Williams said, encouraging people to pursue meditation or exercise.
“We can talk until we’re blue in the face,” Williams said. “But until we give them a space to actually do it, it’s not going to happen. We want to really show them, not just tell them that we care..”
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