West Side school board discusses mental health, new gym floor and more

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — At what was said to be the longest West Lafayette school board meeting of the last night years — clocking in at about 3 hours — a multitude of business including the new mental health therapist position overview, the approval of a new gym floor and online summer school and further development regarding the Feb. 1 work session were discussed.

Mental health position overview

Heather Levy, the school district's mental health therapist, gave a presentation about what she does at the schools, what school counselors do and how this two-year pilot position is going so far.

"I feel like I would be remiss to not mention what our school counselors do," Levy said. "And I am also a former school counselor, so I'm a licensed school counselor as well as a mental health therapist. And I work with all the school counselors in all three of the buildings."

Levy's presentation details the services the district's counselors provide, such as classroom guidance lessons on social/emotional health, as well as daily, short-term, solution-focused therapy, along with homeless resource liaisons and much more.

"I don't do any of these things, but this is what our school counselors at our three buildings do," Levy said.

The role of the mental health therapist for West Side schools, however, is more focused on individualized therapy and referrals.

"Our school counselors are the ones who know all of our kids," Levy said. "They kind of have the pulse of our kids. They know where the biggest needs are, so they're the point person for me. So I get all the referrals for individual therapy for kids from the school counselors directly."

Levy explained she meets with a student or parent either in person or virtually regarding counselor referrals.

"I will reach out to the families at that point," Levy said. "I have an intake set up with the parents ... (we) go through just all of the concerns they have about their kids ... and then I will start meeting with the student, typically I meet with them once a week. It's actual therapy, so I actually get to see them, depending on the age."

The topics addressed in these therapy sessions include major depression, self-harm, problem-solving, social skills, suicidal ideations, coping skills and much more.

Levy's position is part of a pilot program where she will serve in this role the remainder of this academic year plus the following academic year It then will be determined if further funding is available to continue the program.

Recommendation for the junior high gym floor

The recommendations based on received bids for the replacement of the gym floor at the West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School were discussed Monday night as well.

Chief Financial Officer Michelle Cronk said, "The notice for bids was published in the newspaper following state code on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 with bids being opened publicly on January 10.

"The overall lowest bid submitted by Cincinnati Floor Company in the amount of $169,121, which is in line with the expectation for the cost of that replacement," Cronk said.

The replacement will take place between March and May and will only displace the regular physical education classes. Graduation is organized to take place outdoors. But in the event that it takes place indoors, the new floor should be completed before graduation.

Online summer school

"This is your junior/senior high school administration requesting permission to partner with Indiana Online Academy," Anna Roth, assistant superintendent, said. "And this is for (online) summer school and is a repeat of what's been done in the past."

Board President Rachel Witt clarified that this option for online summer school will not be the only option, but it is just the first this calendar year they are addressing and approving.

Board Member Dacia Mumford asked about the difference between Indiana Online Academy and the Achieve Virtual Academy.

"I do know that one program is kind of the first-choice option because it's the less expensive free option and then the other one is if that first one does meet the needs."

Roth explained some courses, such as foreign language, are only offered through one program over the other.

Witt noted that other options for online summer school will be discussed by the board at the spring progresses.

Board packet pre-release consideration

On Feb. 1, the board held a work session to discuss the release of board documents and draft-releases of meeting minutes. No votes were taken at this meeting. Witt discussed the next steps in this process this past Monday night.

"This is just information we're now presenting to the community," Witt said.

"We went through a detailed list of all varieties of documents we've seen over the past year," Witt said, "In addition, there were conversation then about the different types of documents, when they could be released appropriately, what different barriers to that might be.

"The next step in this process is to move those on to the policy committee," Witt said. "That meeting is scheduled for Feb. 23. And the policy committee will meet with (Superintendent Shawn Greiner) to review that. We have received clarification from our legal council that indeed, this does fall within the purview of the board to make this decision."

The documents in this list ranged from green, yellow and red documents, each label designating the likelihood of problematic releases with the vast majority of documents being labeled green: unproblematic.

The full list of discussed documents is available to the public, contact Greiner or other members of the board to access it.

A discussion about meeting minutes

At the very beginning of this month's meeting, the board approved various meeting minutes and caused discussions to hit the ground running. The approval of the minutes for the Jan. 9 organizational meeting, the regular meeting and the finance meeting along with the approval of Monday night's agenda were the first four items discussed.

Specifically, two topics in particular caused some debate among the board members: listing the names of the board members and how they voted on agenda items, and deciding whether the minutes will contain what is not voted on.

"Our minutes in the past have always listed just a 7-0 (regarding voting outcomes)," Witt told the Journal & Courier. "They haven't said who voted for what. So that was one of the questions that I'll affirm tonight that going forward, we will list which member with their vote. We'll do that on every item that vote upon.

"The last (concern) was really whether or not the minutes will contain what is not voted upon, which really was the philosophical question," Witt said.

"So my question really to the board is do we want to start listing things that didn't happen," Witt said. "For example, (Brad Marley) was nominated to be the board chair. He did not accept the nomination. That (nomination) didn't happen. So why would we list that in the minutes versus what does happen."

Witt said that what does not happen will not be listed in meeting minutes, as decided by the board.

Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: West Lafayette schools discuss mental health, new gym floor and more