Associate Superintendent Jennifer Gregory and other staff members recently spoke to the Mitchell County Schools Board of Education about changes in support for students who are struggling.
Gregory said that adding two new mental-health professionals to the school district’s staff this year has been very beneficial.
“I collaborate with a lot of school systems and a lot of school social workers throughout the state,” Gregory said. “I’m not aware of any other program similar to having two mental health professionals, licensed clinical professionals embedded in the school system, hired by our school system. So this is just a huge benefit to our students, our staff, our community.”
Gregory thanked the board for expanding the mental-health support options available to students.
Board member Alan English praised the new staffers for their work, quoting a popular saying:
“No one knows how much you know until they know how much you care,” English said.
Board member Brandon Pitman thanked district staff for their efforts to support student mental health.
“We really appreciate what you’re doing,” Pitman said. “It’s, when you look at the numbers, it is staggering. And then that’s just the substance abuse side of it.”
Pitman noted that local youth are still struggling with the after-effects of Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) and the COVID pandemic.
Budget discussions
The board discussed a number of projects that the district might be able to get federal or state funding for.
“We asked for a 10 percent increase in all federal programs, just sort of across the board, that’s your Title I, Title II, Title III, (20:24) Title IV, Title VII, Title IX,” Superintendent Chad Calhoun said.
Calhoun also said the district is looking to get more outside funding for child nutrition and transportation.
Because so much of the school district is in rural areas, a number of the district’s buses are not full but still have very long routes which adds a considerable amount of time to students’ school days.
The board approved a motion to move forward with state and federal funding requests.