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Sequoia Union outlines expanded wellness centers and counseling program after rise in student visits
Summary
District staff told the board that 1,772 unique students received direct wellness services through March (11,579 total contacts), with more than 4,000 brief drop‑in visits; leaders said they are shifting to MTSS tiers, adding internships and tracking effectiveness to reduce reliance on intensive one‑to‑one care.
Sequoia Union High School District officials presented an update to the board on May 7 outlining expansion of school wellness centers and district counseling services and describing early data on usage and outcomes.
Assistant Superintendent Hansen introduced wellness coordinator Steven Emmy, who said the district served 1,772 unique students with direct wellness services through the end of March and recorded 11,579 direct service contacts, including 8,189 individual counseling sessions, 1,766 case management/consultations and 1,624 group contacts. Emmy also said more than 4,000 students used brief tier‑one/tier‑two drop‑in wellness services intended to return students to class quickly rather than refer them to longer one‑to‑one counseling.
"We want to reduce the number of students at the top not because they don't need services but so we can serve more students not behind closed doors," Emmy told the board. He said the district has doubled self‑referrals in the last year and is expanding wellness outreach specialists and youth wellness councils to destigmatize help‑seeking.
Glenda Ortiz Galan, counselor on special assignment, and consultants from Hatching Results described parallel work with school counselors to build a district‑wide comprehensive school counseling program. Hatching Results vice president Whitney Triplet said counselors are moving from siloed guidance practices to a data‑driven MTSS model with fidelity checks, one‑pagers for families and PDSA (plan‑do‑study‑act) cycles to test interventions.
Site counselors reported early local results. Woodside counselors cited a freshmen lesson where correct responses about graduation credit requirements rose from 54% on a pretest to 96% on a posttest; Menlo‑Atherton and Sequoia counselors described tier‑two interventions for ninth graders with multiple Fs and reported reductions in Fs among participating students.
Board members asked about measuring impact beyond usage and about site consistency. Emmy and Hatching Results staff said the wellness data set covers services through March and that the district plans representative surveys of students and families, a district implementation fidelity inventory for counseling programs and a menu of tier‑two interventions to scale practices across sites.
Trustee Thompson praised the focus on prevention and asked how the district will track seasonally elevated need (testing periods, breaks). "We monitor referral patterns and plan targeted increases in services around known stressors," Emmy responded, saying the district uses events (stress‑less weeks, mindful challenges) and staff PD to align timing.
District leaders said next steps include formalizing a wellness internship program for graduate‑level interns to staff centers, continuing data alignment with the district MTSS framework, and working with community partners such as Sequoia Healthcare District to expand programming.
The presentation emphasized that reported numbers are through the end of March and that staff are still improving cross‑site data consistency and outcome measurement.
The board did not take formal action on the wellness presentation; trustees asked staff to return with additional measures of program effectiveness.
