Jackie Vance, a district staff member, told the North Ridgeville City Board of Education on July 1 that the district uses state Student Wellness and Success funds to pay three staff who deliver mental-health and family support services districtwide.

Vance said the program partners with Ohio Guidestone and the Lorain County Educational Service Center to place three staff members in schools: social workers Tanya Conlin and Rachel Laieth and Liz Wilansky, who Vance identified as an LISW and the district's coordinator of wellness and prevention. "We do receive funds from the state, and we have been annually for the last, I believe, 4 to 5 years that that has been in place," Vance said.

The district reported several measures of service delivery. Vance said social workers provided services to 75 students during the past year, and recorded a total of 2,944 "touch points" (each documented contact between a social worker and a student or family). She also said 36 students, across about 21 families, experienced homelessness during the year. Vance described a partnership with Second Harvest that served 23 families and delivered a total of 340 boxes of food; she said the boxes are distributed on a monthly schedule.

Vance outlined programs supported or coordinated by the wellness team, including ROCKS, a girls empowerment program (open to others by accommodation), and Girls in Gear, a bike-safety and skills program the district said has grown each year. She said Wilansky has led grant-writing efforts that augmented the team's capacity and cited a recently awarded McKinney-Vento grant to help families with items such as mattresses, clothing, hygiene products and transportation costs.

The presentation emphasized early-intervention groups and districtwide social-emotional curricula. Vance said staff ran tier-2 groups focused on emotional regulation, social awareness and social anxiety, and that the team supports programs such as Character Strong and Zones of Regulation. She described a new districtwide plan to implement Panorama surveys to gather student-reported data and guide support services: "We want to go based on how students are feeling and what they're sharing with us," she said.

Board members asked follow-up questions about workload and staffing. One board member observed, "3,000 touch points for 3 people," noting the volume of contacts the three staff logged. Vance said the district is "going to have to consider" adding capacity and praised Wilansky's grant work, adding, "we probably do need to consider an additional social worker in the future." She also said staff are working to reduce stigma around accessing help so students seek support earlier.

Why it matters: The presentation laid out how state funds, grants and community partnerships are being used to provide counseling, basic needs assistance and prevention programming. The counts of students who experienced homelessness and the high number of staff touch points underscore the workload for three district-employed wellness staff and frame the district's stated case for expanding services.

The board did not take formal action on staffing or program expansion at the July 1 meeting; the presentation was informational.