Members of Wayland Board of Education Monday night were told that students in the post-Covid era are struggling with mental and emotional issues, and they will decide at their April 10 meeting whether to sign a contract with a service that promises to help.
The board Monday night in a work session heard a presentation from Assistant Supt. for Instruction Theresa Fulk about the Clayful program based in Florida. The company’s web site describes it as, “Developer of text-based mental health coaching platform designed to give every student someone to talk to. The company’s platform connects students with mental health coaches, who engage in text-based, one on one coaching chats with kids, whenever kids reach out, enabling individual users as well as schools to bridge the gap to affordable mental health care and provide all kids with support.”
Assistant Supt. For Finance and Operations Patricia Velie told the board a state grant of about $130,000 is available and Wayland can sign a contract next month that will be good through July 2024.
Fulk said, “The kids are stressed and don’t have the coping skills… Where we’re at is that we can’t keep up… There is a shortage of counselors nationwide.”
She suggested that the Covid epidemic is being followed by a mental health crisis epidemic.
Jaclyn Egler, a “guaranteed substitute teacher” at the middle school and high school, added her daily experience to the argument.
“I hear a lot of amazing things in my job,” she said, “but I hear a lot of things that are sad. There are kids involved in nothing (such as athletics, clubs, the arts) and what can we do to support them?
“I have a lot of ideas and I’m willing to help… We have a major need here, and I don’t see it being addressed.”
Clayful finds a way to reach at-risk students via on-line texting in hopes of making contact before problems get out of hand. Some students aren’t comfortable taking with teachers, parents and counselors at first, so this gives them another option. Furthermore, the service is available all of the time.
Fulk said Plainwell Schools are using the program with good results, but it is the only district in Michigan involved.
Board Trustee Becky Hohnke said, “I’d like to see us implement this for all the kids in all the buildings.”
Janel Hott said, “We should have done this three years ago, or at least before the Covid pandemic.”
Board President Dan Cassini said he sees the need because “The people at home just aren’t doing the job,” but he added he preferred to wait until the April 10 meeting meeting to make a decision because two board members, Norm Taylor and Jeff Koon, were not present Monday.
Cassini also said, “The issue we’re fighting here is the lack of human interaction,” noting Clayful initially is based on Internet communication.
However, Theresa Dobry said, “I think this is a serious situation, so I don’t think we have another option (such as waiting two weeks).”
Clayful has offered the district its services free between now and next August, when the one-year contract officially begins.
But Cassini cautioned against acting too hastily in a “knee jerk” fashion.
“We walked into this room tonight not knowing much about this company at all,” he said, suggesting instead waiting until April 10 to take action.
3 Comments