Student Services Leadership Team Minutes for January 7, 2015 meeting

Present: Donna Madore, Laura Hamilton, Beth Newman, Betsy Harwood, Helen Renko, Kim Silsby, and Christie Jernigan

The meeting began at 7:03 with Kim Silsby introducing the survey that was conducted by the staff regarding at-risk students. The Student Services Leadership Team members asked Guidance, Administration, and Health Center staff members to track the number of students who needed services beyond the expectations of our current staff. The committee was trying to identify the need for a Social Worker position at grades 7-12. The results of the survey showed that 88 student interactions were identified as needing additional support from a potential Social Worker. Below are the survey results.

Overall Participants

Overall total incidences / 83
Interpersonal relationships / 42
Self Harm / 10
Anxiety / 31

Nurses

Overall total incidences / 11
Interpersonal relationships / 3
Self Harm / 2
Anxiety / 6

Administration

Overall total incidences / 30
Interpersonal relationships / 19
Self Harm / 1
Anxiety / 10

Guidance

Overall total incidences / 45
Interpersonal relationships / 20
Self Harm / 7
Anxiety / 15

Incidences by Day of the Week

Days of the Week / Self Harm / Interpersonal / Anxiety
Monday / 3 / 5 / 13
Tuesday / 3 / 7 / 5
Wednesday / 1 / 18 / 7
Thursday / 3 / 6 / 5
Friday / 1 / 7 / 6

We analyzed the data and discussed why students see which office personnel. We talked about the need for a Social Worker for students in grades 7-12. As part of our discussion, we talked about the expanding role of schools and the barriers that affect a student’s performance in class. Beth Newman explained that a Social Worker is needed for the moment to moment mental health challenges faced by students. We discussed that families expect that schools have services for their students. Helen Renko explained that in her survey of schools, many other schools have Social Workers in their buildings, yet, Cony doesn’t. Laura Hamilton asked if there was a way to quantify what is not being done as a result of these cases. Kim, Helen, Betsy, and Christie will meet to design a survey related to time lost due to these instances.

Kim Silsby explained that she included the Social Worker position in the budgetary process as an additional staff member. It will go through the budget process and the School Board will decide if the position is necessary and/or funded.

The committee also discussed Maine Family Planning at Cony. Betsy reported that a couple of students have utilized the services of Maine Family Planning. Betsy reported that she hasn’t received any condoms from Maine Family Planning, but she will look into getting some. She reminded the committee that students could only access the condoms if the student’s parent/guardian signed the form.

The committee discussed what to do about offering Plan B to students. The committee decided to table moving forward to the School Board at this time to see how many students use the Family Planning services. In addition, the group decided to reevaluate the number of students in the Spring to determine the barriers to accessing services. Data shows that over 40% of students are sexually active so the committee wanted to be sure that students using good decision making skills.

Team members also discussed the next action steps of the committee and decided that it was best to focus the energy around getting a Social Worker and also continuing to monitor the existing services like KBH, Case Management with Spurwink, Substance Abuse work, etc.

Our next meeting is February 4th from 7-8 am.