Center Grove referendum would mean millions for mental health support – Daily Journal

When uninsured students at Center Grove Community Schools experience serious mental health issues, there is not much the school district can do about it.

But if voters pass a referendum in November, the school district will have the funding thats needed to hire additional counselors, social workers and other support staff to make sure every student gets the care they need, Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said.

In the upcoming municipal election, White River Township voters, including several who would not normally vote in a municipal election, will be asked if they want to increase their property taxes by 11.5 cents for every $100 of assessed value to fund mental health support, live monitoring and hire additional police officers at Center Grove schools. The referendum would generate $24.8 million over the course of eight years starting in 2020. The owner of a $200,000 home would pay an additional $112 a year in property taxes.

The Center Grove referendum is the third Johnson County schools referendum in a year. Last November, voters passed a referendum that allowed Clark-Pleasant Community Schools to raise money for mental health support and school security through a property tax increase. Franklin Community Schools also had a successful referendum, as voters approved a property tax hike in May that allowed the district to raise teacher salaries and provide mental health support.

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Edinburgh Community Schools is considering a referendum to fund capital projects and replace outdated buses.

Of the $3.1 million the Center Grove schools referendum would generate each year, $1.15 million would go toward mental health services and teacher support. The district plans to hire an additional 35 to 50 employees during the life of the referendum with those additional tax dollars, including: social workers, counselors, paraprofessionals and police officers, although the police officers would be paid from the chunk of referendum money that is set aside for school safety.

We will not start hiring until we have successful completion of the referendum, Arkanoff said. Then, well be working with an administrative team to determine what number of counselors, social workers and other support we need.

The district has about 25 social workers and counselors employed at its nine schools. If voters pass the referendum, Center Grove schools will make most of its new hires next year, Arkanoff said.

Center Grove schools will likely follow the lead of other Johnson County school districts, such as Clark-Pleasant Community Schools and Franklin Community Schools, which hired mental health coordinators to outline services and strategies for students with mental health struggles and work with counselors at each school. Center Grove schools will look at adding a mental health coordinator regardless of whether the referendum passes, but it would take longer to hire them without the extra money, Arkanoff said.

School counselors help students navigate the standard stresses of social life and school, but they dont have the training to help students with more severe mental health issues, said Jeffry Henderson, Center Grove High Schools principal.

"While they assist students in dealing with routine social and emotional conflicts that arise out of teenage interaction, they are not licensed mental health professionals," Henderson said of high school guidance counselors. "Having the referendum in place would afford us the opportunity to formulate a partnership with outside agencies that could provide counseling services that are intensive in nature."

Center Grove schools has Adult & Child Health counselors under contract, who work at the school buildings to provide mental health services for students. Each school building has at least one Adult & Child counselor, but students whose families do not have health insurance cannot get mental health care, Arkanoff said.

Theyre all funded through Medicaid. If (students) are not on Medicaid, they dont get service, he said. We dont have the resources to combat that, so thats why theres the referendum, to bring in those resources for everyone not just based on insurance.

Center Grove schools also wants to focus on continuing to use and improve social-emotional learning strategies. Those strategies help students manage their emotions, accomplish goals and build relationships, according to the website for the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, a nationwide organization that promotes social-emotional learning in schools.

There are a plethora of factors that may go into a student having emotional struggles, which parents weighed in on during a thought exchange survey the Center Grove schools conducted in the spring, Arkanoff said.

"Kids have the pressures of social media, the pressures of getting good grades, maybe the parents are going through a divorce," Arkanoff said of the survey findings. "We need to be more cognizant and work toward the mental health of students."

Mental health has become more of an issue for Center Grove students in recent years, said Daniel Weems, student services coordinator at Center Grove High School.

"Every year I feel there is more anxiety and depression that students are experiencing," Weems said. "There are a number of factors, such as the time we live in with social media, and the fact that our brains arent fully developed until were in our mid-20s, and they have more access to information than we did when we were at their age. They deal with school work, expectations and trauma in their life. Students really do have a lot to deal with today."

In September, Center Grove schools sent out a district-wide survey to students, parents and staff. The survey asks about safety, learning, interpersonal relationships, social media and institutional environment, according to the National School Climate Center, the organization that created the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory.

Specific survey questions are not being released. Center Grove officials will pour over the results and report to school principals by the start of the spring semester, said Bill Long, assistant superintendent of operations.

At a glance

White River Township voters will be asked the following public question during the upcoming fall election:

"For the eight (8) calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall the Center Grove Community School Corporation, Johnson County, Indiana, impose a property tax rate that does not exceed eleven and one-half cents ($0.1150) on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation and that is in addition to all other property taxes imposed by the school corporation for the purpose of providing funding for (a) live monitoring of facilities, (b) improved security response time and deterrents, and (c) added mental health and additional classroom supports for students."

Source: Center Grove Community School Corp.

At a glance

Here is a look at what the additional $3.1 million a year would be spent on if it is approved by voters:

$1.15 million per year for mental health and classroom supports

$1.06 million per year for live monitoring

$900,405 per year to improve response times and create deterrents

Source: Center Grove Community School Corp.

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Center Grove referendum would mean millions for mental health support - Daily Journal