As a school community an important topic of discussion is student mental wellness. It came up at the Safe Schools Community Forum in early April and we discussed it even further at the North Penn Talks presentation by Kevin Hines held two weeks ago. As we work toward providing a school system that equally provides both emotional support and educational excellence, our work in this vitally important area goes well beyond these two events.

To that end, we recently established a Mental Health Think Tank whose membership includes more than 50 staff members from across the North Penn School District (NPSD). Every school is represented and various positions are included so that we can obtain multiple perspectives, ideas and insight. The Mental Health Think Tank recently spent a morning working on the following important issues related to mental health:

• Student Transitions
• Streamlining Counseling Supports
• Behavioral and Social/Emotional Needs of Early Learners
• Social/Emotional Learning
• Mental Health Screeners and Risk Assessments

We believe that these issues are the areas in which we can improve delivery of services to students and consequently improve student mental health. As a group, we looked at each issue, the problems surrounding each area and then delved deep into root causes and how we can work to solve the problem.

For example, we discussed the concept of time and specifically the lack of time that guidance counselors, teachers and other staff members have to connect with students. Everyone is extremely busy with the day-to-day requirements of their job and consequently it is a challenge to consistently address the social/emotional needs of our students. We want to change that and talked about some solutions moving forward.

This is just one of many challenges we discussed at this first meeting of the Think Tank. Next steps include prioritizing the recommendations made that morning and developing an aggressive but reachable plan to meet the mental health needs of our students. And we need to do this as quickly as possible.

Dr. Dietrich and Pennfield students at April's Superintendent's Student Council Meeting, mentioned below.

I meet regularly with students in all of North Penn's schools. In fact, within the last few weeks I met with both North Penn High School (NPHS) and Pennfield Middle School students and talked to them about what's going on in their lives at home and at school. Many of these students talked about the stress and pressure they feel, whether from school, after-school activities, a part-time job or all of these things. We need to consider these stressors on our students and help them find better balance. And students of all ages are feeling this pressure, not just those in our secondary schools.

Please know that the conversation surrounding student mental health will continue, and indeed will never be complete. As always, you will be updated on our progress.