AURORA | Mental health took the limelight Monday during Cherry Creek Board of Education’s first meeting of the school year.
Michelle Weinraub, chief health officer, praised the district’s efforts to support students’ mental health during a presentation she delivered to the board Monday night at Liberty Middle School.
“Everything I’m going to talk about here tonight is because you care about our students. You care about them as full people knowing that if we can make them as whole as possible, with their families, they have the best chance to find their pathway, their passion,” Weinraub said.
When it came to mental health, Weinraub said that the district hired 38 new staff members. This includes clinicians for Traverse Academy, the district’s mental health treatment facility that is scheduled to open in the fall of 2023. The district also hired 18 additional staff members to work at Traverse Academy, middle and high schools, and school addiction counselors.
Weinraub also spoke about students’ social emotional health. The district partnered with Panorama Education, an education technology company, and ran a pilot screening program in eight schools within the district last school year. Students in the pilot program were asked to self-report about how they fell on topics such as: supportive relationships, self-management, social awareness, growth mindset, emotional regulation, self-efficacy and sense of belonging.
According to the data from Weinraub’s presentation, a higher percentage of elementary school students self-reported a 4 or 5 — on a scale of 1 to 5 — on most criteria compared to middle and high school students. The latter had a higher percentage on the topic of self-management. All grade levels reported the same 47% percent level when it came to emotional regulation..
Weinraub said data and the survey is not clinical but “will guide [the district’s] mental health staff work. It will guide [the] administrators and [the] educators.”
She added that 32 schools will be screened this year. Their goal is to screen the entire district by the 2024-25 school year.
When speaking about students’ physical health, she praised school nurses for logging more than 180,000 clinic visits last school year and being a resource for families.
“These nurses are needed. They keep our students in school. They keep them from having to go home for minor injuries or medical interventions that can take place at school,” she said.
Director Kelly Bates echoed those sentiments.
“I am very appreciative that we live in a district that supports and believes in making sure our kids are taken care of,” Bates said.
Director Angela Garland also claimed that when multiple doctors failed to help her daughter’s vision problems, it was the school nurse who helped her the most.
“Never underestimate the value of school nurses,” she said.
The board did not receive any public comment directly related to Weinraub’s presentation.
The board also approved all 15 consent agenda items, which included approval of the contracts to place school resource officers in multiple CCSD schools, without discussion.