Sauk Prairie School District announces $4.6 million mental health grant

Sauk Prairie School District announced their ambitious school-based mental health grant at a press conference last Tuesday, held in the empty (due to spring break) but spacious atrium at the entrance of the high school. Congressman Mark Pocan made an appearance, spoke briefly, and answered questions. In lieu of Governor Evers, Linda Hall, from the Office of Children’s Mental Health, spoke as well. Board member Mary Ann Marx and school social worker Amanda Boatwright made the introductions. The district applied for and received a multi-million dollar grant from the United States Department of Education. Just over 100 school districts applied, including two from Wisconsin, but Sauk Prairie got the nod. They were awarded a total of $4.6 million over five years. The District has to match 25 percent of that total with their own financial contribution. The grant program will reshape the relationships students have with the various support services around them. Instead of a model where the student in at the hub of the wheel and independently has relationships with services like law enforcement, medical care, community services, the court system, and of course, school, the grant will allow Sauk Prairie to build a better model. In that model, those service agencies will connect and collaborate together with the student, a kind of full-service model. (See diagrams on page three.) At the press conference District Superintendent Jeff Wright read the following quote: “At all levels, we must remove the barriers between education and health service agencies. Schools serve as the ideal ‘hub’ for service delivery; however, schools must be adequately staffed with school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and school nurses who can provide the proper services in the school setting, connect students and families to the appropriate services in the community, and work collaboratively with external agencies to ensure streamlined service delivery and avoid redundancy.” Following directly from that explanation the school district address staffing at their meeting last Monday, hiring for new positions in the district. Wright explained: “This grant funding will allow us to hire a licensed clinical therapist helping us connect students to behavioral healthcare right when it is needed. We will do this in partnership with Sauk Prairie Healthcare.  We will be able to hire a cross-agency coordinator and two additional school social workers. This team will coordinate with county human services, local law enforcement, and other support teams to get help where it is needed more quickly and eliminate unintentional redundancies of care.” He continued, “The grant will also empower us to further train existing school staff and focus resources to make sure those who take care of our students are also taking care of their own mental health.” Wright made sure to mention Dr. Noelle Sapiro, the school district’s Director of Student Services. According to Wright, “[she] led the grant writing process. She put into words what we have dreamt of doing for years and did a phenomenal job.” Wright also thanked the agencies involved, from Sauk Prairie Healthcare to the sheriff’s departments. Wright noted: “We are not the only community in Wisconsin facing these challenges. I believe the US Department of Education invested in this grant proposal because it saw potential for creating a replicable model that can help school districts and agencies charged with supporting families in crisis across Wisconsin. What an exciting challenge to get to reimagine service delivery with so many dedicated partners.”