May was mental health awareness month. Student mental health is recognized as one of the great challenges facing school districts and adolescents today. The challenges involving adolescence with the progression of technology and social media are generally understood and accepted to magnify the mental health challenges facing our students daily. The school district made efforts to provide additional support regarding student mental health during the 2022-2023 school year. The school district entered a contract agreement with Milestone Health Partners to provide individual student behavioral health counseling available to students at the middle and high school levels. This has aided those in need and supported the educational environment in our school buildings. The shortage in guidance counselors and support positions, such as social workers, has also challenged the school district in addressing the needs of all students and to provide necessary support for the volume of students at all grade levels. The school district will continue to provide this support and seek to broaden the reach for students and families requesting and in need of such services.
In conjunction with school district support of mental health and student wellbeing, WCHS and WCMS will be implementing a new program in their school buildings to limit the abuse and misuse of personal cell phones and their impacts on student discipline issues and general environment of their school buildings. The high school and middle school will start the 2023-2024 school year with the Yondr program that utilizes pouches of which a student cell phone will be held in a locked pouch and unable to be used during the school day. This will help address student misuse of their phones and social media impact on students’ ability to learn as well as general mental health issues present with cyber bullying and misbehavior facilitated by the cell phone. The program has been successful in other environments across the country and our school district will be using the pouches to start the 2023-2024 school year. More information will be provided by the middle and high school soon regarding the program later this summer along with policies related to it; a joint middle and high school parent night has been scheduled for August 14th to share with parents the program, its intention, and implementation.
The student discipline issues related to cell phone misuse is over 80-90% of all issues at the middle and high school buildings and can be addressed easily with the simple removal of cell phone use during the school day. Students will have access to their school issued Chromebooks of which parents can email their student if information is needed to be shared and, of course, can contact the building offices to get messages to their students, if needed. We recognize this will be an adjustment, however, the impact on students and their educational opportunities is difficult to overlook and worthy of acting and implementing this new program. The school district was fortunate to provide a parent night in the fall of 2022 involving Jesse Weinberger of which staggering information was provided as to students in our school district and their exposure to content involving their cell phones and social media. This data and her presentation prompted many to ask for further resources to address the issue and provide more oversight involving student cell phones and their use and supervision. This initiative is designed to address cell phone discipline issues by eliminating cell phone use during the school day and promote a partnership with parents and families to maintain overall student safety.
We encourage parents to reach out with questions and to attend the parent night in August to learn more about this program and its implementation at the middle and high school buildings. We are pleased to offer this as a proactive approach in pursuing the goal of maintaining high levels of students safety and educational achievement.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Please have a safe and enjoyable rest of June.