Owensboro Public Schools officials are continuing to put a major focus on mental health this year. Summer Bell, the district’s mental health coordinator, OPS is moving in the right direction on many fronts.
Bell gave a mental health update and the moves OPS is making during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
Bell said OPS has been working on their partnership with Mountain Comprehensive Care Center for a while. Through that partnership, OPS has four full-time counselors in place — one each at Estes, Foust, and Cravens elementary schools, and one that splits the preschools.
Another counselor will be starting soon at Owensboro Innovation Middle School, and one more will split time between Newton Parrish and Sutton elementary schools. Bell said the ultimate goal would be for Newton Parrish and Sutton to each have their own full-time counselor.
Bell said the current counselors serve about 106 children, but the additional counselors will allow the district to reach about 150 students to provide individual counseling services.
“Some are receiving case management services and some are receiving medication management,” she said. “So that’s definitely very positive for our kids because right now we know that mental health is a need for our students.”
Outside of the Mount Comp partnership, Bell said OPS has also added six new school counselors district-wide and a mental health physician at the middle school.
“That’s been such a great asset at the middle school to have a licensed therapist and mental health person there to deal with the higher level intense kids and just to provide those social work mental health services,” Bell said. “And with the additional school counselors, we’ve been able to implement more social-emotional learning.”
At the elementary level, Bell said there are several classrooms that are doing emotional check-ins every day with students.
“We’re able to identify early on in the morning which students are in need of supportive services,” she said.
Bell also said that the mental health teams in schools have been strengthened this year to help identify students that need additional support. School officials are also looking to add “safe places and calm corners” to classrooms.
“We’re really moving in the right direction,” Bell said. “We have a lot of great things going on. Every kid that comes through OPS has access to mental health services, whether it’s with the school counselor, myself, Mount Comp, or even an outside provider. We’re working hard on what OPS offers, how we collaborate with others and making sure every student is receiving emotional support, behavior support, and mental health services if needed.”
In other business, the board also approved raising the price of cafeteria meals for adults. For adults, breakfast will increase by $0.25 to $2.75 and lunch will increase by $1.10 to $4.60. All OPS students receive free meals. The increase is recommended by the state.
The board also approved the district to participate in a Kentucky Department of Education vaccine incentive program. All vaccinated staff who meet all the requirements that are set forth that will be paid a $100 incentive that is funded by KDE.
The board approved adding positions — a math teacher/interventionist, two instructional assistants, and a special education instructional assistant — at Owensboro Innovation Middle using ESSER funds. They also approved an emergency certification for a middle school math teacher at Owensboro Middle School.
