Vermilion schools present Student Wellness and Success Plan, highlight on-site therapy and mentoring programs

The Vermilion Local School District’s board heard an overview Monday of a state-funded Student Wellness and Success Plan that officials said will expand on-site mental-health services, culturally appropriate prevention programs and community liaisons to support students and families.

Jordan Parr, introduced as a high school counselor, said school counseling work is organized around three domains—academic, social-emotional and college/career—and stressed that counselors work ‘‘constantly’’ with students, parents, teachers and administrators. ‘‘If we were to certainly work in isolation, there’s no way we could get the job done,’’ Parr said.

The presenters described three funded initiatives: school-based mental-health services, culturally appropriate prevention programs (including ROX, short for Ruling Our Experiences), and expanded community liaison and family-support programming. Laura Wheeler (introduced as a middle-school counselor) described ROX as a growing, 20-week curriculum for young women; organizers said the program costs $100 per participant but that grant and wellness funds are covering participation. Wheeler said ROX participation has increased and the district hopes to field 20 middle-school and 20 high-school participants this year.

Stephanie Atwater, one of two district mental-health therapists, described the district’s clinical work and referral pathway. ‘‘By far, the most of our work is individual counseling—one on one with the student—with pulling the family in,’’ Atwater said. She said services include individual, group and family therapy, crisis assessment, safety planning and referrals to county agencies when needed. Atwater gave program totals since the school-based therapy began in January 2022: 254 referrals to date and, by school year, 21 families served in the first year, 113 the second, 116 the third and 85 currently across two therapists.

Kat Smith, the family-support specialist, outlined wraparound supports that connect families to food pantries, hygiene resources, housing-voucher information, and coordinated care plans involving multiple community agencies. Smith said the snack-pantry and coat-distribution efforts have grown (snack distributions rose to nearly 9,000 in a recent year and coat distributions exceeded 50), and she said community partners include the Erie County Health Department, Grace’s Kitchen, the Salvation Army and Ohio RISE.

Presenters also announced philanthropic support: organizers said the Cindy Froman Foundation donated $10,000 this year (up from $5,000 the prior year) to support literacy and wellness programming, with some funds earmarked for ROX and Men/Women of Courage mentorship programs.

Why it matters: District staff told the board these in-school services shorten the time to intervention, reduce stigma and permit closer coordination between therapists, counselors and teachers—advantages they said are harder to achieve when families must rely only on community providers. The program description included explicit referral routes, partner agencies and the expectation that state wellness funds must be used for specified purposes.

Board action and next steps: The presentation was informational; the board did not take a separate vote on the wellness plan during the meeting. Presenters asked the board to continue supporting partnerships and grant-funded programming as the district finalizes implementation details.