School counseling budget increases driven by expanded mental-health awareness class; guest-speaker stipend requested

Seth Corn, director of school counseling and student testing, briefed the board on the school counseling department—s budget requests, highlighting an expansion of mental-health instruction and modest contracted-service increases.

"The mission of the School Counseling Department is to deliver a comprehensive school counseling program that is provided for all our students," Corn said (presentation remarks). He described increased enrollment in the grant-funded mental-health awareness class taught by Christina Redmond and said sections have grown to multiple offerings per semester, creating a budget need for guest-speaker stipends and related contracted services.

Corn said the department continues to align programming with state and national counseling standards and that the state requires counselors in grades 6–12 to develop individual student success plans. The counseling presentation also listed program improvements including expansion of benchmark-reading supports and use of community partnerships to offset costs (staff noted the town sometimes uses state marijuana-sales revenue for drug-awareness programming and that that town funding has in the past paid for some larger speakers).

Administrators told the board they will pursue grants and other offsets where possible and that some requested spending is to cover growing sections rather than a new recurring program. Board members asked clarifying questions about the stipend request and about how the counseling department coordinates with town youth services; Corn and other staff said they planned further collaboration and would return with updated cost-sharing details as needed.

Ending: The counseling director said he would follow up with the board on the stipend ask and potential offsets through town programs and grants.