Northville board approves one-year MOU with IHA/Trinity for co‑located mental‑health services at Hillside

The Northville Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Dec. 16 to authorize a one‑year memorandum of understanding with IHA Health Services Corporation, an affiliate of Trinity Health, to provide co‑located mental‑health services in a community partnership space at Hillside.

The agreement — presented to the board as a memorandum of understanding to be managed by district administration — will allow a licensed master's‑level social worker employed or assigned through IHA to use the renovated Hillside partnership space for scheduled mental‑health appointments. Presenter for the district said the arrangement is co‑located office space, not a school‑based health center, and that IHA will manage scheduling and intake through its outpatient behavioral‑health intake center. "This is not a school based health center," the presenter said during the board presentation.

Board members and district staff described the service as an "additional layer" of access: the clinician will begin with two days per week in the space, offer in‑person and telehealth appointments between about 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., bill insurance (including Medicaid) and provide preferential appointment scheduling for Northville students where possible. The presenter said IHA manages consent‑to‑treat documentation and that, under HIPAA, the district will not receive protected health information unless parents sign a release for two‑way communication.

The board and several trustees pressed for precise language about service scope and access. One trustee summarized the district's intent as offering a co‑located, rented office where families who choose services would call IHA to schedule: "Families have got to call the Trinity outpatient behavior intake center to schedule an appointment for these services. There's no online, scheduling. There's no walk in scheduling," the presenter said.

Public commenters raised procedural and privacy concerns before the vote. Public speaker Matt Wilk objected to the timing of notice — saying the agenda item was posted late the previous day — and warned that large health systems using patient portals could limit parental visibility into a minor's appointments: "If you have, as you mentioned, MyChart, Epic, you cannot see your 14 year old child's appointments in that chart," he said. Other parents and community members urged more time for community engagement but also cited local data showing high demand for youth mental‑health services; Peter Hoffman, who identified himself as a program specialist for the school safety tip line, said roughly 32 percent of tips to his system through November were mental‑health related and urged the board to move forward.

Board members acknowledged the transparency concerns while stressing a community mandate to expand mental‑health access. Secretary Meyer brought motion 67 to authorize the administration to enter the MOU; the board approved it by voice vote, 7–0. Trustees said the one‑year term will allow the district to evaluate how the co‑located services operate in practice.

The MOU includes an exhibit describing services IHA will and will not provide; the presenter said the MOU explicitly excludes abortion counseling, prescribing/distributing contraceptives or medications by the therapist and clarified that certain conditions (for example, more intensive eating‑disorder treatment) would trigger referrals to more comprehensive care.

The board directed administrators to proceed under the approved MOU and indicated they would review operations and community feedback after the one‑year trial. The meeting moved on to other business and later convened in closed session for a superintendent evaluation under Public Act 267, section 8(a).