Loyal School Board approves mental health curriculum
According to the Centers for Disease Control 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, more than 4 in 10 (42 percent) adolescent students felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third (29 percent) experienced poor mental health. It’s no secret that mental health is a growing concern in our nation’s schools.
The state of Wisconsin awarded “Get Kids Ahead” grants to all public and independent charter schools in the state in August, with the purpose of building comprehensive school mental health systems. The Loyal School Board has opted to use Loyal’s grant allocation for a curriculum that it hopes will boost the mental fortitude of not only students, but staff.
On Feb. 22, the board approved the purchase of the 7 Mindsets mental health curriculum for staff and students. The wellness committee reviewed the materials and recommended the purchase.
The materials will cost $20,000 and will cover grades K-12. The school will draw from its $33,774 in “Get Kids Ahead” grant funding to pay for the curriculum.
“What it really works on is the staff initially, with some training on mental health and then it will trickle down to our students,” said District Administrator Chris Lindner. “The grant will cover for two years and then we would have to take a look at what we would do from there.”
Training will take place this fall, if not earlier. The school district will not add any staff to teach the curriculum, but current teachers will learn how to implement the curriculum in their own classrooms.
The online curriculum is predicated on the researchbased idea that happiness and success are largely based on how individuals think, so by changing one’s mindset, one can change his or her life. The seven mindsets are: everything is possible, passion first, we are connected, 100 percent accountable, attitude of gratitude, live to give, and the time is now. Included in the curriculum are 30 ready-to-use lessons by grade, per year; progress monitoring and assessment tools; and extra videos and resources.
“Well, I think we’ve heard from plenty of staff that mental health is an issue, and parents too. I was hoping to receive a presentation from the wellness committee, but if this is their recommendation …” board member Kim Bremmer began.
“My understanding is they did look at some other curricula and then decided on this,” replied board member Tom Odeen.
“So, at the beginning of the year, they kind of put on a presentation on wellness and mental health, and that’s where they got the feedback where yes, this was more student-driven and they got feedback saying ‘Hey, we understand students, but what about the adults?’ So going through researching and things like that, they thought this was the best to cover both adults and kids, and to do it effectively,” said Lindner.
The board unanimously approved the curriculum.
Other business Also at the meeting, upon the recommendation of Lindner, the board approved hiring Robert Cypher as a math teacher for the 2023-24 school year to replace Mike Strick, who will retire at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Cypher is a Medford native. He has his master’s degree and spent the last five years teaching in Singapore.
The board also hired Roscoe Lamovec as middle school baseball coach for the cooperative team with Greenwood starting this spring.
Another approval was the school’s CWETN ( Central Wi s c o n s i n Educational Television Netwo rk ) c o n t r a c t renewal. Thirteen member schools share classes over a TV network.
The board agreed to keep summer recreation program fees the same this year. The cost is $20 per participant. That is also what Greenwood charges and Loyal co-ops with Greenwood for 8, 10, 12 and 14U baseball and softball.
Another item up for discussion was approving a contract with DASHIR cleaning services, which would assist the custodial staff. The school had two custodians resign this school year.
“We are down to three custodians from the five we had, and we’re having no luck finding any, so we are struggling with it,” said Lindner.
If the school approved an agreement, DASHIR would hire current custodial/maintenance supervisor Zach Zarnke and would be responsible for any new hiring. The two other custodians would have the option of staying with Loyal or going to DASHIR’s payroll.
“Abby, Spencer and Colby all have this and they recommend it highly… We would save a little money by doing this and they would be responsible for hiring,” said Lindner.
The board sounded interested in a contract with DASHIR, but decided to table the issue until March to get an updated quote, factoring in how many employees would switch to DASHIR.
The board also discussed a retained services agreement with SC Networks LLC, run by Sam Cattanach. The school’s current IT director Scott Johnson is planning to retire either the end of this school year or sometime next year.
“Sam Cattanach is Marshfield’s IT guy and he’s worked for us before. So he knows our system and what we have,” said Lindner. “He would not be here very often, he would be at a remote site and able to control the majority of stuff that needs to be done.
“I recommend we latch onto this agreement with Sam because otherwise we might be stuck. He would start this summer and go into next school year.”
The board voted to table the item. The board voted to approve lawn mowing service proposal from Curley Creek Lawn Care, LLC. Curley Creek will mow the golf course and the football field each week for $300 and trim the football field fence area as needed for $60 per time. The school’s own custodial staff will mow the areas in front of the high school and on the sides of the building.
Lindner reported that the collaboration effort between the Greenwood and Loyal schools had been going well. Loyal’s staff traveled to Greenwood for a professional development/collaboration day on Feb. 10 and Greenwood’s staff came to Loyal on March 1. He said there had been good discussion between grade-level and subject area teachers for both schools, and 7-12 grade Principal Doug Dieckman agreed.
“We got a lot of comments from the teachers saying they just wanted more time. Some teachers are already looking how to balance strengths and weaknesses they may have,” said Dieckman.
Along those lines, Dieckman has also been working with Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green on establishing a daily schedule for the schools so that students could easily travel to take a class in a district other than their own. The administrators are trying to build in longer breaks at mid-morning breakfast and lunch to allow for travel time.
The school had its seventh snow day the day of the meeting, meaning that day will need to be made up. School was closed again due to ice on Feb. 27, so that day will have to be made up as well.
