A recent report from the director of academic services for the Woodland Park School District highlighted the lingering effects of the loss of mental health-related state grant funding for students as well as staff.

“The teachers are tired and seeing more behavioral events in classes,” said Karen Hamlow, speaking Dec. 17 during an informal school board work session. “Four years ago, we had a 70% turnover in our staff.”

Four years ago, a conservative slate of candidates won election to the school board and subsequently hired a superintendent whose policies split the community. Among them was the superintendent’s termination of a stream of state grants that funded 15 mental health counselors.

“Grants totaling $2.2 million just got flushed,” Hamlow said.

Hamlow’s report was a heads-up to the school board, whose new members Kassidi Gilgenast, Laura Gordon and Carol Greenstreet joined Mick Bates and Keegan Barkley.

“We are applying for different grants, and I just want you to be aware of them,” Hamlow said.  

The grants, if awarded, will address behavioral issues and absenteeism for at-risk students and add mental-health counselors to the elementary and secondary schools.

Hamlow prefaced her report with a chart showing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: feeling safe, getting enough sleep, and being sheltered and fed.

“That’s when learning really happens,” she said.

She pointed out that 35% of district students are part of the free-and-reduced lunch program.

“Often, their basic needs are not met,” Hamlow said, adding that some families who qualify for the program do not sign up for it. “Forty-five of our children receive bags of food each week, while 29, that we know of, have housing insecurity.”

Ginger Slocum, interim superintendent, added, “The number shocked us, so we are working with the county and Care & Share.”

With the cuts to mental health services in the district, the middle/high school, along with Columbine and Summit elementary schools, have one licensed counselor in each school.  

“We need an experienced crew of people who are licensed professionals. The national standard is one counselor for 250 students,” she said. “Our counseling need is far greater than the national standard.”

Students in the eighth and ninth grades are responsible for 56% of the behavioral issues, she added.

“There’s a huge need right there,” she said.

In the secondary school, of 102 behavior events, 25 students were given out-of-school suspension while 37 received in-school suspension, Hamlow said.

In addition to behavioral issues, some students are not showing up; 291 students missed more than five days of school, Hamlow said.

“Absenteeism is another way students are pulling back from their learning,” she added.

Bates defended cancellation of the grants by the former superintendent.

“A primary factor was the peripheral stuff that came along with those grants,” he said, without explanation. “The grants were steering away from education – the wrong kind of education.”

Bates added that cell phones are part of the problem and are having a harmful psychological effect on students.

Greenstreet supported the application while emphasizing the importance of personal relationships between students and teachers.

“I recall Steve Woolf saying the biggest threat to schools was from within,” she said, referring to the former superintendent who brought his therapy dog to school.  

Students who are part of the military community need support, especially when their parents leave home, Gilgenast said.  

“This is something our family has experienced,” she said. “There is a lot of need for outside support, so that’s another layer the community could benefit from.”  

Barkley noted students’ mental health needs and their subsequent effect on their teachers.

Will the grants, if awarded, help fill gaps in the programs that were cut? Gordon asked. Hamlow replied in the affirmative.

Hamlow’s data supports the need for the grants, Gilgenast said. “But I think there should be a layer of community input,” she said.

Hamlow agreed. “I will say that when the grants were dismantled there was not community input at that time,” she said.

According to a survey and a listening tour of teachers in the three schools, Slocum reported that new teachers feel valued and welcomed.

“The teachers say that the school climate is improving and most reported feeling a sense of job satisfaction,” Slocum said.  “This is huge. They appreciate the cohesiveness and unity and the acknowledgement.”

The board meets again Jan. 14 and is expected to vote on the true-up report about the finances of Merit Academy.