The Salida School District has been working with Solvista Health and increasing its mental health support services. At their June school board meeting, the board approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Solvista that will further allow them to support mental health in the district. The district uses a co-location services model which translates into 50 hours a week of services between Solvista and students in the schools. This covers all the schools in the R-32-J district.
Superintendent David Blackburn explained, “Through this pandemic, mental health has been a large concern and now you have Children’s Hospital and others in Colorado declaring a youth mental health crisis.”
“We are moving in and creating a partnership where we are using the same model we used with the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Salida where we’re paying almost half salaries; $30,000 for them to dedicate an employee, in this case, to the high school.”
Photo by Brooke Gilmore.
“They will join the team and not just get scheduled for convenience in our buildings but actually be part of the high school team which will allow them to build more relationships, be more present, more agile, and responsive to students and ensure that our students are getting the support they need.”
The high school is also changing the way they support social-emotional learning. Blackburn explained it is “of very high value for our community and that structure how it can better create systems where we individually make sure our kids are getting what they need.”
“We use the term multiple-tiered systems of support (MTSS). That system of both social-emotional learning, MTSS, and our advisory program which meets about a half-hour a day in the high school wasn’t meeting our expectations so we’re looking at a different structure.”
“Part of that is to bring on a specialist for the mental health needs so we can really determine over the next 12 months exactly what the need is in our high school. So, it’s not a theoretical or an emotional response, we have good data, and bringing a specialist on will get the data we need,” said Blackburn.
“We’re also simultaneously bringing on a specialist in concurrent enrollment in college pathways through CMC to join that same team again; to answer in 12 months, where is our gap.”
The district announced that it has also hired a consulting firm to allow for community input with high school graduation requirements and strategic planning.
“That’s a commitment by our board to make good on what they promised, he said.” Now that we have enough money (because the stimulus dollars allowed the board to rescind a fiscal exigency) they could take that next step, he added.” We’ll make sure that conversation is getting scheduled with experts to validate and listen to the community.”
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