Educators address mental health

Pea Ridge School Board members heard a presentation from Jamie Woods, director of counseling, Monday night in the regular School Board meeting on the personnel and programs being used to help students with mental health. Woods told board members the school has a memorandum of understanding with both Ozark Guidance Center and Youthbride, each of which provide personnel to assist students covered by ARKIDS and private insurance.

She said there are several events planned over the next couple of months to provide additional learning including a program on Oct. 28 about bullying, harassment, uplift and “Say Something”; on Nov. 18 to present a new “social emotional learning roll out” and more in 2020 to address vaping, sex trafficking, informed care and building trauma.

Restorative Justice will be partnered with Conscious Discipline, she said, to provide “sensory deescalation rooms within a structured setting” for students to provide a place in which “everyone can stay safe.

“We had a specific need,” superintendent Rick Neal said, adding that school personnel were “seeing so many specific problems.”

Principals shared reports on progress of individual schools.

Charley Clark, high school principal, presented a resolution to board members to peruse concerning school safety.

“If kids aren’t safe, they can’t learn,” Clark said, saying he has seen “seven major, major school security issues in the time I’ve been here.” He said there are expulsion threats that are brought to the board members, but there are also other threats they address. He said he and other officials had been working with Bentonville school officials to find appropriate ways to address the threats.

In other business, the board:

• Hired Alana Wallace, as high school science teacher replacing Connie Trotter;

• Accepted the resignations of Barbara Brown, ISS teacher, and Connie Trotter, high school science teacher.

Board members SB, JN, MC, Ryan were present