The district announced two grant awards that will fund licensed mental-health professionals at the district's junior-high and high-school campuses.

Interim Executive Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations (identified in the meeting as Mrs. Bachman) told the board the grants came through a school-based health-care solutions network. According to Bachman, the grants will provide a fully funded licensed mental-health professional for each secondary campus and include recruitment support, training and ongoing support from the granting agency. The district will not be the direct employer of these positions; the third-party provider will hire and manage the clinicians while the district will participate in interviews and supervise local coordination.

Bachman said Jennifer Smith, coordinator for student services, will serve as the district's grant coordinator and liaison with the provider. "She will be supervising our mental health professionals, our SEL specialists within the building, and also being a liaison for this grant," Bachman said.

Financial details discussed in the meeting include two numbers that personnel mentioned at different points: one statement said the grant would provide "up to $25,000 over five years for each principal for the purpose of purchasing necessary materials or resources," and a later comment in the meeting said "this would cover up to $85,000 each award." The district representative stated the awards are not sufficient to restore the full mental-health staffing level the district lost after grant funding ended, and the district remains short by four positions compared with prior staffing funded through grants.

Board members asked whether shared educational-services positions (SES/Shared Educational Services) were affected; Bachman said those positions are not impacted because they are funded separately by the SES program and by private-school arrangements.

Why it matters: The addition of two funded clinicians increases on-site mental-health capacity at the secondary campuses after prior grant funding ended, but district leaders said staffing remains below previous levels and the district will continue to pursue additional funding.