001yeah [Music] are you alone and bring this convenient to order um I'd like to welcome everyone for coming please rise through the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] thank you I'll go ahead and be interesting emotion to approve tonight's agenda [Music] having a motion in the second time any opposed parenting on the motion carries with that you need a motion to enter into executive sessions vote yes vice president yes yes with that we are an executive session um courtesy for everyone that has a spot the board is going to move to the other boardroom to hold our executive session which should not take very long and
002then I'll be coming back to open the session again thank you Okay so we've come out of the executive session um I'll entertain emotions at this time I'll move to approve the administration's recommendation for hiring a new CFO I'm glad it's excited having emotion in a second on Thursday I buy any posts hearing that emotionaries move back into uh board meeting comes into the public input um I'm sure everyone is fully aware that the fire marshal has issued a certificate of occupancy for this room at 36. um I didn't hear anything that you told everyone so so with it with a million presence being here we have a farm watch um so the main thing is the state exits and I was clear yeah I asked him for the villains over there that are helping
003out if he didn't get something to keep that access clear I mean here we're able to go over that now since I'm here president of that um the other one is with it is um I just asked that when you do just help your neighbors out we have better you know these chairs and everything are kind of tight um the ones that are on the hallway if you can exit out and you know the door that you can with us through here put the back off out that back way we have additional Accents in there and it's designed what the fire code um it's set up based on this room size of the configuration it can go up to the 78 if all these tables weren't here on here um but it's here for your
004protection the fire code over the years has been written by fatalities and tragedies that happen so the main thing on here is just the public safety and I just want to make sure that everybody here is safe and then you know where your exits are at if there's an emergency okay thank you thank you for being here great advice all right so we'll go ahead and move on into the public input um is there anyone that wasn't hasn't told Rosina that ever here to speak or anyone okay there's one out here there is one out here thank you everyone has a maximum of three minutes to speak when your name is called if you'd like to come forward you may otherwise if you want your message written into the record it can be the first
005person is Claire bird okay character no okay I heard public holidays to the lake On The Board of Trustees thank you for taking the time to hear and consider that the community is going to put on this matter I feel that every effort should be engaged in the beginning of the counseling contract with Heritage tall mental health support and Professional Health not only benefits the students the families that work with the counselors but the staff of our district gains additional support as well we all want the best for our schools and I believe that providing every available beneficial resource to the students and teachers is essential and National statistics show that this is a resource that is indeed essential our children and classmates teammates neighbors and friends all benefited from the strong support system that
006includes successful mental health care I think career efforts on their behalf Karen Brooks good evening my name is Karen Brooks and although I am a district employee this evening I am Karen Brooks the mother of a high school student that utilizes Heritage Health counseling services psychogenic non-electric seizure disorder OCD Tendencies depression and anxiety these are my son's diagnoses hospital stays evaluations phone calls and appointments that has been in the last four years of his life searching and begging for help and resources to support us through all of his mental health problems the one commonality to all of the tests of appointments and conversations is counseling a safe person and a safe place to help Lisa navigate through his mental health and to learn skills to help him have a successful functioning life without self-harm as
007a single parent I Am The Sole Provider for my family food shelter Healthcare education Etc Heritage Health allowed me the opportunity to provide financially without worrying about getting myself into the counseling he's so desperately needed he not only gets to speak to a licensed professional who is familiar with his diagnoses but he uses a missing out on any school academics and you don't have to leave work to get him to any appointment however now I am riddle with overwhelming stress about how I might balance my priorities with Heritage Health out of the school I will be forced to choose doing the work to provide financially for my family or will I leave work to take my son to the necessary Mental Health appointments a decision no parent should have to make the scheduled conflict is
008not the only problem finding a counselor that is familiar with specific aspects of someone's mental health is extremely important just as important as the person establishing a good rapport with that counselor so that he feels safe enough to open up and inducing work needed to help themselves after spending weeks establishing sad relationships and little by little chipping away making progress my son's counselor May no longer be available to him the heavyweight of student side has affected everyone in our community one way or another my only brother committed suicide after years of struggling with his own mental health literally begging the hospital in his last days to help him he was turned away and that was the end of his story at the end of his life now I have a son who struggles with similar
009mental health issues but the difference is that my son has been getting to help that my brother never did now though even that is being taken away so could the school board's current decision be attributable to our community's next tragedy when will the desperate Cry for Help be taken seriously my son's story isn't special and it's not out of the ordinary it is however real and familiar so I stand for you tonight begging the foodborne to please reconsider their decision regarding Heritage Health [Music] thank you next person is volleyball did she attend yes hello hi Virginia address first of all I wanted to introduce you to my beautiful beautiful intelligent kind wonderful most important happy and really fun shelter religions Lakewood Middle School and it was rough when we interviewed the seventh grade it was
010a really dark creator because I'm depressed and suicidal and as her mother I couldn't fix it seventh grade and luckily our story is coming out better because for the school counselor referred us to Heritage Hope Health and she has this wonderful counselor named Tim Young but we tried to bridge this on our own we reached out to every place that we could and we were told that everyone couldn't be seen for anywhere between two months and six months and that was at our own expense which was tremendous within three days and that is when our story started to take a turn with time I'll uh we saw a wonderful changes in her for one thing she went from failing almost to every class to Ace of bees she found her happiness again she changed so
011much because she developed skills and was able to cope with some depression and climb her way out to the dark hole so so today we're here to speak about 100 people who couldn't appear let me feel that it is so important that a mental health is addressed in a school because we're all here because we believe that no child should be left behind so in that child again and we turn our back on him and we don't have the ability for them to be seen and helped because let's say that our teachers and our school counselors are already terribly terribly overtaxed we don't provide those resources or make them available that immunosis turn our back on their child and their family and our community because we're all affected by the Children's Mental Health the fact
012that this could even be considered given that it would be living in a time where there are still still shootings that happen you can't necessarily keep guns out of our schools but we can normalize Mental Health we can help children we can also help other kids like Bella come out of the darkness and for us although we might say well we don't even need this service anymore well that's like saying to you know an Olympic Athlete you know you're in pretty good shape well I don't think you need to exercise anymore for us we know the continuing health and support treatment in the counseling and realizing that um therapy isn't just for people who are in a really bad spots foreign all right please my name is Heather Hamilton I'm an elementary school counselor at
013Apple Elementary School I also oversee our Suicide Prevention efforts and as well as our Heritage Health Services instruction I provided to you is our district of community shopping spreadsheet that has on it all the analysis students that are being served by Heritage Health and how many are the wait list how many suicide protocols we've had some kind of going to be speaking to this as well if you're not able to view it due to the protocol they understand first and foremost I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my entire counseling team I'm going to put them around the audience for the next school year even though in the garage scope of our student population 70 students may seem rather insignificant but totally Center perspective that would be equivalent to
014all of my first grade classrooms at Apple Elementary School and one of our kindergartners one of our kindergarten classrooms so I want you to Envision that this room has three first grade classrooms and one care now I want you to imagine each one of those children has a mental illness tomatoes students is being certified and now we know that we're going to be taking this necessary service away when you look at it in that perspective it has a very immense impact on their learning and our overall systems what we have seen with our students is that we don't give the medical health services they need they're not able to learn whether it's due to lack of instruction or missing class time or they're just going to be able to access the content because of their
015current mental status in addition to that some of these symptoms can exacerbate and result in suicidal Behavior Tendencies as well as become severe disruptions in the classroom I assure you that my team and I have every confidence in our partnership with parents help we build these services that have been well utilized well implemented these services are highly trained highly skilled and I can't speak in other professionals if you have any further questions or concerns regarding what this looks like in our buildings we had a representation from our high school our middle school and our other elementary schools thank you [Applause] next is go um okay dear school board on behalf of our students and the parents who respectfully ask that you please keep Lakeland School District's relationship with Heritage tall the service they provided that
016is to safety and Order of our school there are 14 Lakeland High School students currently on our heritage child counselors case mode which is 1.6 of our student population the need the needs of this small group of students is beyond so the service services that a school counselor is able to provide no student is seen by a Heritage Dental counselor without parent consent parents plan a release allowing Heritage Health to meet with the students and the parents also means with the Heritage health counselor to complete an annotated form prior to any service parents expressed great appreciation for the ease of connecting their child to the proper Health at a critical assignment in life their student becomes more prepared for learning when their mental health needs are treated the convenience of these students getting necessary help
017while at school is what really allows this program to work the counseling session entails 30 minutes once per week and is targeted at specific times today which will not interfere with four classes the interruption is minimal and the benefit to learning is great building a space is not a concern in regards to Heritage Health Services at LHS the meeting occurs in a space that is not needed by anyone else on those days it is an efficient process and students are excited the students are exited from Services once counseling goals are met prior to this service being available at school these students were often untreated due to the lack of availability of mental health counselors in the Community Transportation or scheduling challenges students who see Mental Health Counselors outside of school often miss out on two
018to three class periods but the quality of the Mental Health Counselors at Lakeland School District is working with is a rare find these professionals are highly regarded by us as school counselors and we have full trust in their ability to provide the best care for our students we see the direct results we have less emotional crises happening and an improved academic rates emotional crises equals missed class time and brings a sentence of chaos to our school environment we see students going from desperately searching in unhealthy wasting hopeful and having positive coding mechanisms for life they have or they become more functional in school and in life which benefits not only the student but also their Community we appreciate you giving us a chance to voice our solid support for this service we strongly believe that
019our living community is better because of the service we would be honored to address any concerns or questions next we have uh Aaron Sachs Megan McAllister and Ali Niemann as well dearly from Board of Trustees and members of our community thank you for taking the time to hear our view on recent decisions to not renew the NYU Heritage job we lower some discussion appointments on how this denial will affect us the building and staff our students using the service as well as families and our community we want students in their classes for the maximum amount of time our job as school counselors is to use brief solution focused counseling to help students compartmentalize certain issues that may keep them from being able to absorb and understand instruction while we are able to handle many situations
020and keep our students academically centered there are situations that are outside our scope of care and need to be addressed by and with a training professional a therapist our job is to communicate any issues outside of our scope with parents and then refer them for therapy as necessary when students are identified as needing a referral having access to Heritage health keeps students from missing more class time than necessary in most cases students who attend outside therapy during the school day can lose up to two hours or more of instruction time and or don't return to school for the day I heard a child being in the building is time efficient and analyzing students missing instruction we have a significant lack of resources in our area to depend this many agencies only accept certain insurances we
021have a number of students who are on Medicaid or more private pay providers who accept Medicaid or payment on a slight empty scale are extremely challenging to find Heritage shuttle provides both of these services and comes directly to our location a student who has to attempt to get on the wait list for Heritage Health outside of school now has to navigate a first-time first serve calling system requiring a daily phone call to try and secure an appointment prior to the system the wait list was several hundred people this is a hardship to our families who are working unable to sit by the phone to get a counseling appointment some agencies are six months out in accepting new referrals families are most often the drive force behind recurring student and all students are required to have
022parental consent to access their services in addition to parents can discontinue Care at any time we receive phone calls frequently from parents who are anxious to get their students additional support cannot find a resource in the area to need their needs as school counselors supporting our students families and teachers is our main goal having this resource to provide for families who ask is a direct added value to our school district thank you well it may seem like there are a large number of students this impacts between our two District middle schools we currently have 16 total students accessing these Services as a result of their brief but consistent 30-minute therapy sessions behaviors and most importantly their academic success are improved this provides us the ability to focus on other students needing our assistance with their
023academic success finally okay well I did kind of distracted finally the Heritage Health therapists containing care throughout the summer when we are not available this continues to continue the care this continuity continuity of care is an Essential Safety Net during the months when we are unable to provide services [Music] thank you sorry nope uh good morning I saw the article in which Lakeland plans to not renew the no-cost contract the parentage job by understanding is this contract allows for free counseling for students I am ready to express my disapproval of this action and asset the board we consider this as the surviving spouse of a husband who took his life via suicide I can't express how important it is to have this service in place the amount of suicides that have taken place in our
024school our schools just since 2017 is devastating and if having this service in place saves even one life we win I don't know any details about this free program and how much it has been used or not used but I do know the impact suicide has on families in the community mental health is not addressed enough and resources aren't always easily attained taking away this is a free option in my opinion is a huge disservice to our community and children next is the Jeremy who is not attending okay uh good afternoon I am unable to attend a special meeting at the board taking place tomorrow Thursday April 20th 23 and I would like to submit the comment below uh to be read during public input I apologize that I cannot attend in person that thank
025you for entertaining my written comments and my absence this is in regards to the decision to not renew the no-cost contract with Heritage top has to test it'll be April 10th or either board meeting the CDC recently published the youth risk behavior survey data for 2011 through 2019. the report underlines exactly why counseling services such as those provided by Heritage Health are needed Trends around mental health and suicidality among youth are going in the wrong direction some army facts to highlight nearly all indicators before mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased from 2011 to 2021 a staggering 385 or 57 percent teen girls felt persistently sad or helpless in 2021 representing 60 increase in the highest level reported in the last 10 years 183 or 30 percent seriously considered suicide up to 60 from
026a decade ago while the extent International I believe they are representative of our adolescents here in North Idaho that is why it is more important than ever to make it easier for our children and their families to participate in these Services they need not heard during the discussion of April 10th meaning the only articulated concern was the physical space Heritage Health was occupied which superintendently replied back that the services were not imposing on any in-use classroom or instruction space I believe that without further reasoning to deny this service it is necessary to reevaluate the benefits of this highly in demand service and I urge you to really consider or find another comparable solution the decision to remove the accessibility of these counseling services to prove to be a matter of life or death and most
027certainly will have repercussions that impact the entire Community thank you next is Matt Cade requested the letter b hello I'm writing this letter to discuss what I feel is a great mistake on the districts part by determinating the Heritage dog program my daughter sees one of the counselors currently and she has shown great progress in years she has spent with him the issue that was brought up was facility reasons but from the few times we have family sessions or the one 30-minute session a week my daughter has been in in an unoccupied room that isn't in use during those times to terminate this program would do a great disservice to all the kids these counselors help on a daily weekly basis there has been talk about letting outside counselors into the building and the cost
028of the district for these meetings but it's coming out of parents insurance and it bills like a normal therapy session would but this provides a time and place that makes it easier on full-time working parents and a very busy child's schedule filled such as track after school each day I would selfishly hate to see my daughter lose for the progress she's made as well as all the other students these professionals are hoping overusing an empty already unused room please consider reversing the decision for the sake of all of our children's mental and emotional health thank you this we have Kim to ciao thank you um and I am a parent whose uh children go to Timberlake High School dear board members I was surprised to take care of your decision asking Heritage Health counseling to
029just continue to use our schools for purpose of providing counseling for our children in need of assistance I'm not sure of your objection to this program it costs the school no money and only a small area for meeting with a counselor my daughter attends Timberlake high school and see Sierra swim and counselor who works for Heritage weekly at her school about a year ago she started to really struggle with schools including her counselor Renee cordahl became very concerned about her I'm a nurse and recognize my daughter's need for professional help I divide all avenues to give her hope that she needed their limited number of therapists in our area in a smaller amount that see young adults my daughter went from a vibrant life sorry life excuse me living life to the fullest excellent litter
030leader and a student in her school it involves the top athlete to the Shelf a person that no longer could be human to find the simplest of enjoyment in life needs no one else in the Counseling World could see us since there were booked out for over two months everyone wanted to help us that no one had a room to see us we even saw our pediatrician and they couldn't even help us my husband and I noticed here are advice and spoke on the phone before she even spoke to our daughter she is a certified counselor and all interactions were conducted in a professional manner my daughter excuse me still sees her weekly and we see the daughter we used to know she wants to join it in her daily living now she enjoys school
031and has good grace she's also involved in sports again and has become leader of her peers again she still struggles at times and we continue counseling for this reason the partnership of counselor September Lake and Heritage we were able to get my daughter called Chinese this is an invaluable program needed by our young people not only is my daughter able to see Eliza's professional but only this is a small amount of school and if we end this agreement between us and Heritage my daughter will miss three hours each week of school to be able to see a counselor I do not believe this is a good idea I urge you to rescind your decision to not allow courage to come to our schools our young people need this opportunity please don't take this away from
032that stand by our children and help provide any assistance that they need to succeed in this crazy world and the one thing too that I would like for everyone to just consider is I talked to Heritage and they said that we have like eight to nine kids in this program at any given time and what would any of us feel like if one of those children if we drop this program one of those children harms themselves or Worse even harm someone else it's a super important program and I really wish that you would reconsidered taking this out of our schools thank you so much for giving me the time next is Jacqueline Meyer hello my name is Jacqueline Myers I'm a resident member of three children in living room School District I also lead to
033representative education group comprised of many local parents and community members tonight I want to recognize that there are a lot of feelings about the decision that it was made and I've been very moved by the testimony of people here tonight um and I get this is a very complex issue and I wanted to point out some of the things that I see as a parent that I do have concerns with with the program just to kind of bring some of those to people's your attention to work um do we want the government if he's having a set of control and influence over the world of our children or should that write the responsibility lie with parents I wonder if they're kind of concerns about where are programs like this in our Public Schools can lead
034why saw the counseling students need medical care also those political health centers in the schools like they're doing in Washington Oregon and California let's make sure our kids are provided with access to doctors for convenient birth control side of medical antidepressants Etc or better yet let us get a senior American facilities for recovered vaccines all of these things were happening in school districts that I had my kids in previously this is a real concern in mind just the slippery slope and where this can lead and I appreciate that you're taking all the points into consideration with this um I also wanted to express my concern about the inappropriate engagement from the school this type of arrangement can suggest if you've ever participated in counseling you've likely found that all counselors are not the same are
035great some are not so good some are just not a good fit for that particular person having the school sponsor this practice is a bit of misleading for parents does anyone betting the counselors are the counselors will hold them to District policy do we know for sure what their agenda is and how that will be manifested how well do parents really understand what they're assigning their children up for I absolutely understand that this is a complex issue and that you as a board are taking into account many different factors I appreciate that these decisions are made of careful consideration the optimizations that if you're being targeted at the board not just tonight but from other things that I've seen on social media and whatnot are hurtful and reactionary I don't think anyone is saying that
036kids whose parents agree need counseling shouldn't get it but it should but it should be managed and provided by the parents this is not the independent function of her character or attended Public Schools thank you for your consideration foreign school district and I have a single working mother and not have time to prepare something and talk about and everybody else but at some point in time all three of my children have participated in this program and I have seen the benefits that have come from that as everybody else appears testified to read stories and benefit and the transparency and the openness that we have with the counselors to discuss those issues and have those conversations is absolutely wonderful and the lessons our children have learned we learned how to express themselves and ask for help
037when they need it and I think that I never thought my children would read that like everybody else has said the resources in the community are very smart I have literally called every counselor in the book you know they're able to pay for children because they're too young or they don't have openings and they have this opportunity for the kids that need it and the kids that don't have the ability to be transported out to go to a different account group because their parents have to work and they shouldn't have to choose between working and providing for their child or giving them the mental health care that they need it is a great um program that you have and some other person mentioned the summer program that they did we also participated in that and
038they provided Transportation would come and my children love absolutely love to have that ability to go talk to someone I guess we have a very open dialogue in our home that we talk about everything but to have somebody else that they can go and talk to and find different tools that we're going to build and provide is an invaluable resource and I've not just for my children it's for everyone in the entire district and for that is to be canceled and should not be provided is detrimental to everybody I think everybody here the the community says the same thing and everybody else is certified way more eloquently than I have but the message is the same this program is needed it's beneficial and it will hurt not only the students who are in it the
039other ones that are being prevented from learning or will be negatively affected by different actions next is Jackie Lee heard a child in our schools in my visit to the Rathdrum offices I was forced to wear a mask or not come in the staff and the doctors treated me with obvious disdain for older Americans the doctor asked inappropriate questions marked my file with anti-vaxxer I strongly feel this company is woke and should not be influencing our kids Teresa the formful because Theresa okay this is actually on the Lakeland Loney and it says please Champion Tech education I am so impressed by the access Kootenai County students have technical education in high school as you know katech is funded as a partnership between Post Falls Coeur d'Alene and Lakeland if any levies fail we risk losing
040technical education for all school districts Baker [Music] foreign happy to be part of whatever conversation that this community needs to have um you know I think you probably heard lots of impact of the really good things that this program has done it was it was really cool to start so we started in 2013 with our mobile unit providing Medical Services uh within the schools it was just neat to see the different things that happened as relationships formed between our staff and the teachers and within the district it was just really you can see all of the good that can come when people take a problem and come together to try to solve that and so you know our we're going to continue to provide services for the community that we want to be a part
041of it if there's that's part of being here in the school district absolutely we'd love to continue that we also we don't want to be a hotbed issue I believe that mental health is a really important thing that we all need to focus on I think we have a tremendous sap that every time you meet with a client there's a part of your soul that you share with them and I think that's why the mental health therapists has such a difficult job um because you see people going through a lot of really challenging things and they have to go on with their life too and figure out how to how to make the world a better place we're just so lucky to have the amazing people that we have you know that they've been incredibly
042honored to be a part of this process up here so we're always around and we'd love to answer questions if there's any misunderstandings is there anything that you aren't doing yeah as far as the contract that we could do better but we're happy to do that um you know my my phone's always on and we're happy to answer any questions thank you foreign ER have you ever Hester I currently have four children all of whom are currently students in the life of the school district uh somewhere one of my children had a pediatrician console that resulted in anything or referral to a mental health specialist the community edition's office was very blunt and said there was a list of places we can only refer you want to call around and see who has the soonest
043appointment um I didn't even get a call back call uh when a school started my child again having conservative Behavior I was consuming a lot of school staff's trying to look at the behavioral issues as well as committing himself in other students at risk eventually I was told there was an option to possibly be refer to Heritage Health where he would be able to see a counselor with legal at school uh of course I had to fill out a consent packet providing my insurance and have an intake session with a counselor I was thrilled topically we were able to get a meeting with them as well as not having to take time off of work or for my child to miss an off day at school in order to pull them out I am a
044software as well as my husband was a truck driver so he doesn't have the ease of just leaving work for an appointment that has some parents to me and may not have my job somebody done it because kindergarten Here was that you're all together from school as they try to counteract those effects one of the things I noted and really appreciated I was during the intake discussion and accounts that are already Dynamics in my son's classroom he already knew some of the other students interviewed the teacher and reading the principal and so um with treatment being able to kind of take those things into consideration and know how to work with my son and give them the right tools with the right personalities he was working with everything ended up working out very well in
045addition to the benefit of my child having their equipments on campus being tremendous not only did I not take off work or pull my child from school for longer than necessary but this also meant that he wouldn't spend another unknown amount of time waiting in a waiting room um this helps for the council to get employee student and students who was ready to see him with limited um an impact on his school day and he was already suffering from all the behavioral issues he was already celebrating his classes and defined um I now have another child with a different concerning behaviors that I feel have also benefits program and I'm really heartbroken that the school district did not want to do the contract well I don't understand but for others community services such disease we
046all know that youth Mental Health crisis is on the right across the country but especially here in the Pacific Northwest where we have our own related environment efficiencies that we contribute in addition to the effects of the coaching on our kids um when a child dies from a soft Harmony as parents often wonder what we could have done in our community we would want to know what the schools in the community could have done as well so quite a briefly having a friendly dog food such as this is an imperative for the children of our community so um thank you nope hello my name is Nikki Arena I am a property owner and resident of raft from Idaho I am a Community member who is greatly concerned about Lakeland Joint School District continuing with a
047contractual relationship with Heritage Health before writing this public comment I called Heritage Health and asked them about the services they offered the lake through the Lakeland schools they confirmed to me that they offer counseling to students including social emotional learning principles and practices one of the overarching principles of the SEL movement is that it eventually be implemented through all public schools then in the personal lives of the students and eventually in the society that these children create as they ensure into productive members of society the problem with social emotional learning methods is that there are no studies of the long-term outcomes of this method of indoctrination on the children and on our society the definition of SEL is sel is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge skills
048and attitudes to develop healthy identities manage emotions and Achieve Personal and Collective goals fill and show empathy for others establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions what does this mean who will Define healthy identities or the collective goals for example if you researched the framework of this ideology you will find that one of the collective goals is to establish Equitable learning environments the term Equity means that an equal outcome is produced everyone who is indoctrinated have the same attitudes identities and goals I can only touch on all the harmful outcomes of this ideology most of us are aware of the negative effects of the current Progressive left agenda in our schools no one should encourage this Progressive left agenda be implemented in the Lakeland School District until they have thoroughly investigated
049the outcomes in schools Across the Nation who naively embrace it when highly respected resource on this subject Catherine essel Stone wrote a compelling book The Dangerous rise of therapeutic education using a wealth of examples across the education system from primary schools to University and the workplace to show how therapeutic education is turning children and young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring optimistic and resilient Learners who want to know everything about the world thank you for this opportunity to come to calm next we have Nate uh Dakota uh I don't think I will be able to make it out today but I have the following comment when did schools become mental health clinics this is not their job I'm particularly Disturbed that the service provided by Heritage Health is psychotherapy there's
050a reason why psychology has a repeatedly crisis in there okay there's a reason why psychology has a repeatability crisis in their professional journals and there's a reason why the percentage of the population that is licensed to practice psychology is positively correlated with the national suicide rate the reason is that there the reason is that while there are truths to discover in Psychology it is functionally a pseudoscience it does more harm than good keep it away from my kids please thank you clay Myers to the board as I have told you before I appreciate the decision to let the relationship with Heritage Health lapse the more I learn about that outfit the happier I am with your decision I do not think our schools should be providing these types of services I have experienced public schools
051in a different state and have and was a witness to the unyielding growth of the bureaucracy and the undermining of Parental Authority there are plenty of resources available outside of the schools including Heritage Health I don't think it is a wire I don't think it is wise to broaden the school's purview thank you Ken loss skin loss in the hallway would you like to take the premium I stand here before we come to this board with a complete respect for this long-term thank you for the duties you do I also stand here because I feel as it as I Heards in the room here it's a lot of concern for mental health in this area and I think that in so many ways we want this issue to go away but it's not going to
052go away it's going to get bigger Colvin caused a lot we've seen it obviously we've got four boys that live with us uh two grandkids two that I've brought compellies that were ruined and I could tell you that two of them one is autistic one of them has about everything on the list that they they can medically devised to put a title on and without the help of Heritage in the background we would have never made it and those kids would have never made it through what we've had to bear so I think that this community needs what it has set in place already I think this this community also needs to have the respect for what's been going on and I can tell you that I've got one boy that I've been trying to
053get into exterior counseling other than heritage along with and for eight months I've been told because they're on Medicaid that they're on a list in the list um I can give you example on how to put a tile on it but one time that we were at number two on the list the next month when I send another message in we wrote 200. so there's no respect of uh who's in line next it's a ruined system and I was told by one of the the the uh counseling services that it's getting worse we don't have the people to cover what's coming in so that we desperately need what's set in place now thank you Allison McClellan foreign six us youth aged 6 to 17 years old experience a mental health disorder each year and half
054of all the mental health conditions began at the age of 14. attention the ADHD behavior problems anxiety depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children yet about half of the youth with mental health conditions received any kind of treatment in the past year undiagnosed untreated or inadequately treated mental health illnesses can significantly interfere with a student's ability to learn grow and develop since children spend much of their productive time in educational settings schools offer a unique opportunity for early identification prevention and interventions that serve students where they are already are early treatment is effective and can help young people stay in school and on track to achieving their life goals in fact the earlier the treatment the better the outcomes and the lower the costs untreated or inadequately treated mental illness can lead
055to higher rates of school dropouts unemployment substance abuse arrest incarceration and early death school-length Mental Health Services like the relationship with Heritage Health reduce barriers to youth in families getting needed treatment and supportive community and support communities when we invest in children's mental health to make sure that they can get the right Care at the right time we improve the lives of our children the youth and families and our communities this school year alone one school in our neighboring District had two teen suicides one is too many one of those were was my son's best friend and when he tried when his family tried to get the help at Coeur d'Alene High School their list was too long he couldn't get on it and there was nowhere in town that he could be seen so
056Caleb found a different way out why are you taking this opportunity away I have yet to hear a valid reason both of my kids use this opportunity with Sierra one had to be on a waiting list before they could get in that should tell you how needed and vital they are to keep this for our children please please please keep them coming it is a no cost to the district and our children and our health and wellness is vital education and for those who say we as parents don't vet these people yes we do yes we do I had my own conversation with Sarah and she is her my husband and I invented the whole system and we've been going to Heritage Health for a long time so for people to say that we haven't
057done that that's disrespectful thank you next is Julianna Aldrich there's uh well instead of her calling it red the contract with Heritage Health to allow students to access to needed counseling and therapy was approved by the school board on July 13 2002. this program is only minimal effort to school staff in space and not a strain on the budget so a little effort is a no-brainer to help students mental health and should be a priority it will enhance their ability to be safe and productive in our community as well as ensure their own Learning and Development as proud members of our society why why why would you get rid why why why why why would you get in the way of students receiving what they need when it does no harm to District however students
058not receiving what they need for mental health can absolutely bring harm to our community our students teachers and create widespread difficulties for the schools please bring this up again in a board meeting and reinstate the programs continuous doing so would show that you are taking action to fulfill the board's mission statements and uh dudes it I need to do sick Community member good evening superintendent Arnold chairman Thompson and trustees thank you for your decision not to renew the NYU with Heritage Health lakeland's 2022-23 board approved operational plan states that Lakeland is committed to providing an exemplary education to the families of our district over the years we've seen a blurring of the line between academics and the social welfare of children while Heritage Health has many valuable resources a quick look at your affiliations and
059grantors show an alignment with diversity equity and inclusion and their public support of the North Idaho Pride Alliance and CDA for Pride Games Social what Assurance do parents have or do the parents or the district have that these ideas or beliefs are not being shared with students as they have been on as they are being seen on Lakeland campuses there was a battle going on for the minds of our children and unless schools do their job which is to teach students how to reason research read and understand to help them make informed decisions that will impact our future they very well may end up being discouraged and depressed thank you foreign Bauman to the school board I am writing in concerns to the Heritage Health Counselors I am distraught to hear the board is considering
060removing Heritage Health Counselors from our schools I am a guest teacher in the district so I know Tim young professionally but please consider this as an email from a concerned parent Tim has been seeing my children for two years he has had a profound impact on them I was unable to find a counselor who would see them around my work hours or who had availability to see them my children needed the professional support of a licensed counselor Tim has given them and myself coping strategies and helped us all function better as a family Tim has had the same impact at families I know personally and this is Multiplied over all of the schools in our district by Tim and the other Heritage health staff this has been a blessing to our district the students who
061would be most affected are often high risk support this support could help them lifelong is it our goal as Educators and parents to set out our children to set our children up to be successful throughout their lives these children will grow up and I want them to be well adjusted happy in contributing members of society I feel strongly without a Heritage Health any of these students cannot do that this is a way our district can have life can have long-reaching help in our community I am pleading with you all to do this for our kids they need this they can't advocate for themselves so as a parent and a concerned citizen I'm making my opinion known thank you for hearing me out last is Amy Bishop and there's one more after Amy no no okay
062good afternoon my name is Amy Bishop I have three kids in Lakeland district from 2007 to current I wasn't aware before the CDA press that the service offered from Heritage Health are in danger of being discontinued I have a child who was having severe anxiety which include things like Tantrums in the morning in preparation for school she had issues with clothing textures and tightness and shoes she had anxiety and eating issues from being the tallest girl who had been called fat who decided she didn't want to eat while at school she wouldn't let me bring b-day treats in or have her name announced due to people looking at her she had a test anxiety and also became angry because of frustration with school work she didn't understand she felt dumb and fat and wanted to
063be invisible the saddest part is that she was eight we talked to her pediatrician we read books on parenting to help and listened to podcasts in the end the doctor agreed it was time to seek more help the major problem we had was with all the people in our area we only could join long waiting lists we got a list for occupation therapy and talked to Mrs litzko about recommendations we were told with amount of students it's too hard to do one on one counseling in a school setting which I understood she told us that Heritage Health offers a small caseload at the school and had me reach out to them long story short we filled out all the paperwork and met at school with Mr Tim young he was great at listening to our
064concerns and while my daughter initially felt uncomfortable she understood we all wanted her to just feel better about life she received counseling for the entire school year and even attended some summer sessions he held at John Brown Elementary we had no meetings with school didn't require school to fill out papers school didn't pay for our services her insurance did I saw huge improvements in so many aspects of her life and while it may never be perfect we can do things in a much better way without such anxiety she eats at school and no longer has Tantrums she will become she still becomes frustrated when she doesn't understand things but that's expected in all kids learnings and frankly appalled at the thought of something possibly being taken from families like ours that benefited greatly and they
065say when our young people have more issues they deal with we should be asking for more resources not taking them away one person said it was my job to teach my kid how to deal but as a parent a free sometimes we need professional help and this was or whom or only way of receiving it at the time please consider who this hurts by getting rid of the program our kids will be adults one day and we only want them to navigate life in the best way they can we want outstanding citizens we want to help the peers maybe distracted by certain behaviors okay we want teachers to focus their attention on learning about math and reading Etc and last is Jessica studer I have three children boy girl boy so as you can imagine
066that middle girl is she's a good one she's spicy we have been on the list for almost two years to get into another counseling program we finally dipped it into one and it was you get the slot that we have so I have no problem pulling my child out to go to these appointments um I'm sure that you'd rather them be here as I would but she has them it was every two weeks now she gets them every week and she talks to me more she tells me things more often she's not as spicy I think that we should definitely keep this service my oldest son did it when we Blended families and we all went together we came to the school during the summer and we did these programs together I think they are
067very helpful that includes the public comments um first of all congratulate all the folks who are here this evening showing uh here concern about this program parents who have spoken to us tonight did a far more eloquently than of course in many instances so I really appreciate the effort to come and do that when I heard tonight uh confirmed what I believe early on and I'd like the importance of the program a couple of other things that that came before I think pretty clearly is that the parents really are in control of us decide whether or not they want the service they go through the intake process and decide so it's not as if you know we're doing something we as a school district are doing something in this Arena I think the the important
068aspect of that is we have a lot of good school counselors to do a great job but some of these things are you know beyond their their level of service expertise and the time that's available in dealing with so many other kids in school so if we can the real bottom line is if we can help kids function better their academic process progresses might be better as well and I think you know providing the opportunity for kids to go through that is I have to agree with Bob that you know that tonight definitely solidified my original thought um we can keep one kid safe it's worth it in it yeah that's that's my opinion current news um well I'm glad that you're funny about this they've been asking for quite some time and we've been
069kept in the dark and allowed access to this information which has been extremely frustrating to understand the value of this program within our district when we're not provided with any data it's not that we're asking for names we're just trying to find out how many kids are actually being serviced is it Equitable for the students across the district or is it only Equitable for a small few um which by the sounds of it you know it is a minority population but the population is not in the minority there's a vast number of kids that need apparently Mental Health Services and we're only able to provide it to a small field um I wish people could be this passionate about their children's education I really do um or curriculum I mean it would be great if
070people were this passionate about the curriculum that we need to put in front of the children I mean it's it's challenging um one of the things we usually do before we make decisions is we survey the patrons of the district and we didn't do that on this time um you know we've my family talking about Ramona and I um you know we found out about Heritage Health Community in The District in in 2021 I believe um and discovered that they've been in the district for quite some time and the board didn't even know about it so um and then trying to get information to really understand what's going on before we just say what's going on um you know trying to keep things cruising along as they were it's just very frustrating the whole process
071is frustrating um and I don't doubt that there is a growing Mental Health crisis within our community but we are a school we're not a mental health hospital so that's where it becomes even more challenging because is supposed to be about the academics and as we know we have low test scores we lose staff because of behaviors so obviously something's not working no matter how many services we're trying to help parents so that they don't have to leave school and the kids don't have to miss class time we're still losing staff because of behaviors so where's the crawler is this really the only solution there is maybe not but it is at least a step in the right direction it is step in the right direction what direction helping to helping your kids okay sounds
072good wow every 10 minutes you're right every time does matter I agree wholeheartedly but what we've heard tonight is that's not an option on lists and it's not you can't you pick and choose who you service what I heard though was you know you're really long nurse yes yes not in some of these emails that we received that there's lists here as well that the kids have to wait on lists if they can get seen so if the lists are everywhere I would agree that the license is um wait wait wait you don't you have time for a public comment so I'm sorry this isn't time for public comment s yeah well you know it's like everything you go through a process correct give me see a regular concert at a school that goes to
073the office and signs up on the list and when the counselor goes down on the list and gets his name but they talk to him about that that isn't any different than what we're talking about I think with what referrals we make are are done in consultation with the parent is in the city as the crowd goes nowhere then that's that's the parent's decision of our decision right so you know because let's see thing says this is this is one step in the process of trying to help kids to be the most effective citizen they can't I agree with the notion that we would love to see the kind of passion that we've heard here tonight with regard to curriculum a lot of other things but I think the important aspect of that is that
074a kid is not interested in curriculum but he's not feeling well so you know let's let's try to address that problem so that we can get along in school he can get along at home she can feel good about herself or whatever the case might be so when it comes to school they can do it as any normal childhood well as far as the parents being in control that's how I became aware of that program because as much as we would like to think that every parent that was in control those that weren't did not show up tonight because when they were approached with the program they were made to feel whether it was true or not their perception was they were being coerced or intimidated to make their child partake in the program on
075multiple occasions that's how it came to my attention and not only that also in other schools we have yeah in other schools yeah Elementary School Spirit Lake Elementary Apple Elementary multiple parents Came to Me Not only was the one single mother forced to have her Elementary child taken to the hospital she felt like she had no other recourse because although maybe it's not a threat when people remind you that not taking the recommendation may be looked at as medical neglect or some kind of neglect that freaks people out when we have parents that had no idea that their children were locked in a calm down room and enough to disturb other staff members in the school and the parent found out I don't know 24 or 36 hours later by happenstance the school never called
076the parent I would like to think that parents are in charge their parents are not in charge again that was Apple Elementary there have been many parents in their company they're not standing up here because they do feel intimidated they feel bullied just like these little kids that committed suicide in our district go ask the kids at the drive-thru why they did it they'll tell you why because the sports kids were bullying them oh it is what it is you know these are whether like I said whether it's accurate or not that's the interpretation so I can't do that I can't there's no there's no problem with us making the recommendation or saying hey here's the people we work with or whatever but some not all parents approach this with the same enthusiasm you know
077and who's I mean this is the thing that's a Hot Topic no matter what we do right and I think that all of us you know like some of us all of us have played a part in all of these tragedies one way or another um you know we've all been affected by advice some who write in our own households in in 2021 I think it was in 2022 we asked Miss Hamilton for this information and first we were told we were going to have the information and then we were told um by the superintendent that we couldn't have the information that it was something that number one we were told that could at first when we first inquired about it we were told that there was something information they laughed and said it couldn't
078be measured and nobody tracked that kind of information that's probably on a reporting you could probably find that and then another time we asked for it and we were told that that was information that could not be supplied to the board to make a decision so if we have parents coming to us complaining and they're afraid to say anything and then we have people within the district telling us that we can't have the information that we need to make a decision what do we do all five members of the existing board voted and they were maintaining the program here the changes that we asked for to the mou because there were some specific changes that we wanted made that didn't come back to us for a whole nother year and then we weren't even going
079to be provided with the red blind item to see what were they changing because it was a significantly changed document so we trusted the administration at that time when we said okay we'll go again to do what the board had asked which was not done and then here we are a year later and we finally have an mou that's been changed again so it's it seems to be that the whole concept of um Mental Health is very guarded and protected in that when you want information to have so that you're making an informed and educated decision based on data you know you're not allowed to have it and when you ask for changes to an mou it's like well you don't have the right to ask for this so yeah we do but we got
080it a year later so the question seems to be are the changes in the nlu that we most recently seen that he wanted there were a lot of changes that are in there that I was kind of shocked about but the biggest one being that they have stopped having the ability to give medication and manage medication to these kids on school grounds yeah that one did finally get out of there so is there anything else in the animals program I think that's what we approved was the summer program yeah the middle of last year yeah we found out about the summer program after in fact and then we were told that notifications funds would be spent on that which was not accurate because we just sort of spent I think yeah on the summer program
081that we were told we were sending no money on but um we I don't believe we've had this summer we did not approve a summer contract for this year but I'm not positive yeah I think it was this year this summer I think that's what started this uh iteration contract was because it went for 13 months instead of the summer months it came correctness this summer anyways I mean we're just having a discussion tonight yeah I personally think that instead of we have set precedent that we will survey the parents to find out what their parents want we have 4 700 students in the district so I think those 4 700 parents have the right to give their two cents on a survey of comparative shops yeah and I think we heard both sides of
082the issue overwhelmingly our parents who are supporting it I've heard very similar comments outside of this Arena parents or who I personally know who have children who have are either currently in the program or have gone through the program I didn't find anyone who had a negative thing to say about most were very thankful for the opportunity to have a kids in the program and secondly that they didn't have to take the kids out of school and miss a half a day of school to go to a conversation somewhere else or they didn't have to take a half day off of work in order to accommodate that you know it's easy to say every current has responsibility to take care of those problems but there are parents that are doing that that are taking their
083kids too that's true sometimes for their kids to make sure they're capable so I mean I'm not going to say that what they're doing is my culture yeah frankly I've heard already here I guess I would ask again well the chair entertainment yeah can I ask some questions yeah so the therapists or devices this is does the school do background checks why is there a license to the state yeah it doesn't matter if you have somebody that's volunteering with you fingerprinted yeah yeah I thought you meant like background oh that's different yeah anybody who works one-on-one circuits I talked to a couple counselors that I've known for a long time and they explained the whole process to me and it sounds like you talk to the parents and like Michelle said we didn't have a
084lot of the information you know we asked for information and it doesn't get brought in front of the board so how can we make a good decision without the information and it happens a lot it's not just this meeting or it's almost every meeting and so you know with that I'm just saying I'm gonna have more information now to make a better decisions all right let's put your entertainment I moved to approve the mou with Heritage Health every second having a motion is second to all in favor say aye all right okay free in favor to opposed to motion cares and on that note that concludes tonight's meeting at 7 45.00 [Music]