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Haywood County Schools reports 63.5 mental-health support positions; district highlights in-house services and reporting tools
Summary
Superintendent Trevor Putnam presented the district's annual school mental health support personnel report, noting 63.5 dedicated positions and a suite of services including an anonymous reporting app and partnerships for training.
Dr. Trevor Putnam, superintendent of Haywood County Schools, presented the annual school mental health support personnel report required under state law and said the district maintained its mental health staffing from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
"For purposes of this section, the term school mental health support personnel refers to school psychologists, school counselors, school nurses, and school social workers," Putnam read to explain the statutory definition and reporting requirement.
Putnam told the board the district reported the following positions for 2023-24 and maintained them for 2024-25: six school psychologists, 19 school counselors, eight school nurses, five school social workers, three licensed clinical social workers, and roughly 7.5 behavioral-assistance positions (down from 8.5). The district also reported 15 school resource officers, for a total of 63.5 positions dedicated to school mental-health supports.
Putnam said many services are provided directly by the district rather than outsourced, noting that a staff member identified as Brandy has billed Medicaid to sustain services. He described additional supports in place: the Say Something anonymous reporting app; two "stepping stone" teachers who serve students unable to participate in traditional classrooms for behavioral or mental-health reasons; a behavior specialist who conducts functional behavioral assessments and develops behavior intervention plans; Linewize for device monitoring to detect students in crisis; and a partnership with the 30th Judicial District Alliance to provide TBRI (trust-based relational intervention) training.
Putnam noted some funding sources are temporary. He said some positions have been funded with ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) and grant funds that may expire, and staff are pursuing other grants to maintain those roles.
The report was informational; there was no formal vote attached to the presentation.
