By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp.— In 2025, there will be two new furry faces in the Brandon School District.
Brandon is partnering with Campus K9s, a non-profit organization that raises and trains Social Emotional Learning (SEL) dogs for school districts. Their mission is to promote the well being of students and staff by providing trained SEL dogs to schools.
“We can have an SEL trained dog in each of our four buildings, said district superintendent Carly Stone. “There are two dogs currently earmarked to be fully transitioned over to Brandon in spring of 2025, and another two dogs about a year later. The dogs slated for Brandon will begin training this school year.”
The two dogs are Labrador Retrievers. Phoebe is a yellow short-hair Lab, and Birdie is a long-hair yellow Lab. The dogs will be placed in Harvey-Swanson Elementary and at Brandon Middle School.
“The purpose of the dogs is to help provide social, emotional support throughout the school day,” said Stone. “That can serve as providing student support during a crisis, dogs attending reading groups to help boost student engagement. It could just be students visiting classrooms for times with the dogs.”
The dogs will belong to the school district and be part of the district as working dogs. They will have handlers, and the staff and students will be trained to work with the dogs. A mentor dog was brought in this past week to walk Harvey-Swanson elementary.
“When I walked Harvey today, it was the cutest thing,” said Stone. “The students got so relaxed, and they have the best manners. It’s just such a great fit. This is the perfect place for our dogs.”
The new dogs will begin training this spring with handlers and the mentor dogs from Campus K9s.
“This is to provide access to that support for students that want it, to know it’s available to them on a consistent basis,” said Stone. “To know that we’re providing such great access, it just feels great. I just can’t wait to see their affect and to provide this consistent service to the kids who need it most. We love our community and appreciate their support.”
Anyone looking to donate towards the cost of the dogs or to learn more, visit brandonschooldistrict.org.