Middletown School Board Considering Hiring Mental Health Services Consultant

April 29--MIDDLETOWN -- School administrators are working on a contract with a New Jersey-based education consultant that would bring staff into the district to address mental health needs of students.

Officials said they have been working on alternative programs for students since the fall, when Middletown High School Principal Colleen Weiner in a presentation to the school board said staff was overburdened by the increase in special education referrals.

The board approved hiring two additional tutors, a school psychologist and a dean of students to help with the load in November but administrators said they were working on a long-term solution.

Superintendent Patricia Charles and Director of Special Education Ann Perzan said hiring Effective School Solutions would add a clinical component to the academic support students already receive.

"We need some additional supports that at this point are not in place and I think need to be in place," Charles said Tuesday.

The plan would bring four full-time mental health professionals, a clinical director and a program supervisor to Middletown. It would cost $495,000, but officials said there could be significant budgetary savings to offset the cost because the district would be able to provide space for students in Middletown rather than paying tuition to place them elsewhere for the services they need.

"We don't want to have to outplace students," Charles said. "Students would rather remain in their home school."

The board of education asked Charles to prepare a contract proposal for consideration at the May regular meeting.

Effective School Solutions CEO David Nyman said his company could provide a program for 18 students at Woodrow Wilson Middle School and 18 at Middletown High School.

He said staff make home visits and would provide professional development to district faculty to maximize the effectiveness of the program. Students would receive daily group and individual therapy sessions, guidance on study skills, independent lunch periods and family therapy.

Nyman said his company started in 2009, is now in 33 schools in New Jersey and is expanding to a few towns in Connecticut. He said the Madison school board recently approved a contract, and he has made presentations in Thomaston, Fairfield and Bridgeport.

In schools elsewhere, he said, the program was able to drastically reduce the number of students sent to other schools for mental health or behavioral health services, saving millions while improving education for those students.

Charles said 91 students are currently placed out of the district at other schools on special education referrals. She said the district would focus on the students who are most in need of behavioral health and mental health services first.

"There were close to a hundred students that still are struggling to access or failing to access their education because of some significant mental health concerns," Perzan said. "It's starting earlier in the elementary years as well, but its growing very actively at Woodrow Wilson Middle School."

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