Nikki McMillan, a campus counselor at Southeast Technical College, told the Sioux Falls School District 49-5 Board of Trustees that demand for student counseling services has increased and that the college is expanding modalities and partnerships to meet needs. "I had 577.5 hours of direct counseling," McMillan said, breaking down earlier reporting as about 259 hours face-to-face and 318 hours delivered via telehealth. In a more recent reporting window she said the program recorded 472 hours of direct counseling, of which 270 were face-to-face.

McMillan described a range of service modalities — in-person office visits, team-based video counseling, phone check-ins, and text- and email-based exchanges — and said those options, plus outreach through orientation and AAR days, helped drive higher summer and semester engagement. "We had 44 students this summer; last summer we had 28," she said, noting the college does both internal consultation and external referrals through a system staff identified as Navigate (referenced in the transcript as "Navigate 3 60").

Megan Rothenberger, student success adviser and well-being coordinator, outlined student-facing programs and partnerships aimed at early intervention and connection. She said monthly "pop-up" positivity events reached about 130 students this semester, and that Destress Fest drew 145 students in the fall and about 80 in the spring. Rothenberger described a newly posted classroom flyer to help faculty and staff identify and report student distress and said the student-success team has strengthened referrals with a local shelter for family safety to support students experiencing dating or domestic violence.

Board members asked presenters about the drivers of rising mental-health needs. McMillan and Rothenberger pointed to unmet basic needs — food, housing, and health care — along with financial stress and increased willingness among students to seek help. On the referral process, McMillan described self-referral and a "soft handoff" where staff or instructors email the counselor to connect a student, and she said Navigate referrals also provide a formal pathway.

The board moved to acknowledge the well-being and counseling update and approved the acknowledgement by voice vote; a formal tally was not provided in the transcript. The presenters said they will continue outreach, partner with local resources for crisis and prevention work, and pursue targeted training (including grief-and-loss education) to support health-care students exposed to end-of-life situations.