District reports staffing shortfalls for counselors and psychologists, expands student health centers and telehealth
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Summary
Instructional Support Services reported counselor and psychologist ratios below recommended levels, expansion of student health centers into middle schools with a Feb. 16 ribbon-cutting, 545 telehealth encounters at two sites, and recent suicide-risk and threat-assessment statistics.
Doctor Corcoran briefed the board on Instructional Support Services, saying the district remains short of nationally recommended staffing ratios for school psychologists, counselors and social workers. "We are still not meeting that ratio recommendation," Corcoran said, noting examples such as counselor ratios that leave some buildings with one counselor for hundreds of students.
Corcoran described school-based programs including Rachel’s Challenge and SAVE Promise clubs, and said the district is expanding student health centers into Holmes Middle School with a ribbon-cutting planned for Feb. 16 at 4:30 p.m. He provided telehealth and mental-health statistics: 238 telehealth encounters at Leaksville-Spray, 307 at Mall Street for a total of 545 encounters across those sites (SEG 985-988). He also said Stepping Stones has processed 156 referrals for school-based mental health since September, with 66 students currently being seen and 68 still in processing (SEG 992-996).
On risk and threat assessments Corcoran reported 169 suicide-risk assessments completed as of Jan. 16, with 84 categorized as no risk, 35 low risk, 10 moderate and 40 high; the district completed 32 threat assessments with 3 assessed as imminent (SEG 1005-1026). Corcoran and board members discussed recruitment challenges: the district draws counseling staff largely from a state fund (referred to in the meeting as 'o 69') but faces a limited applicant pool for positions that require master’s degrees.
Board members asked about funding and career-pathway outreach; Corcoran said counselors are funded largely from the state fund referenced in the discussion and that recruiting candidates for master’s-level positions remains difficult. The presentation closed with an invitation to the Feb. 16 ribbon-cutting and an offer to answer follow-up questions.
