Mental health grant sought by district

In the hopes of bringing a new full-time behavioral and mental health specialist to the school district, CCSD Superintendent Deron Stender has applied for Wellmark’s School-Centered Behavioral Health Grant.

This goal of this grant is to improve mental and behavioral health services in school districts, whether through funding a behavioral or mental health professional, procuring technology for telehealth or helping administration dedicate for time to therapy sessions for their students.

In order to be eligible for this grant, a school district must be classified as a rural or town school, be accredited and must meet or exceed 45% of students utilizing free and reduced lunches.

CCSD meets all these requirements, with Business Manager Billie Jo Greene saying the district has almost 60% of their students using the free and reduced lunch program.

If awarded, CCSD would receive up to $90,000 in the first year, 75% of this in year two and 50% in the third and final year. The school would be responsible for the remaining percentage each year.

Stender explained that while he’s excited for the opportunities this grant might bring, he also spoke with a Wellmark representative about the difficulties many schools may have in contributing the remaining percentage.

“I want to apply for the grant, but I’m not sure I can make up 50% in year three. That would be $45,000 that we would have to come up with, that’s a teaching position,” Stender said. “We may be challenged to make some decisions on that, so I may not fulfill the agreement the third year.”

Stender said the representative was understanding in this and said that likely explains why the company has received very few applications so far. The representative also said that while they would prefer the grant recipient do all three years of the grant, the company would understand the school not completing the third year.

In order to combat the funding issue, Stender had a couple of ideas. One would be doing operational sharing with the AEA on the behavioral and mental health specialist position.

“What I’m hoping we’ll do is, if we can get that operational sharing with AEA, it will generate money to help offset the second year pretty easy,” Stender said.

In order to pay for the third year, Stender said another grant would be needed. “The third year, I’ll try to get an Iowa Cares grant, another grant to help with the grant, because even with the shared services with AEA, we won’t generate enough for $45,000. It gets us close, but not quite there.”

Wellmark has not yet announced when the grants will be awarded. Only one grant per school district may be provided.

In other school board news...

A public hearing has been set for 5:30 p.m. July 21 regarding the high school auditorium lighting project. Originally part of the general obligation bond that went up for vote in 2022, this is one of many projects the school board is looking to complete.

“We had many projects that we broke down different pieces from the original construction projects we planned,” Stender said. “This will happen over the course of the next five to seven years or until a bond is passed for us to continue making progress on all these projects.”

The July 21 meeting will hold other public hearings as well. The public is invited to also speak regarding the sale of school real estate and the the proposed district developed special education services delivery system.

The board approved the June 2025 list of contracts and resignations:

Contracts: Amber Kearney, junior kindergarten teacher.

Resignations: Karly Calvin, assistant MS volleyball coach; Margo Fuller, junior class sponsor.

Voluntary transfers: Carmen Ponce, para to HS administrative assistant; Amy Sheeley, title teacher to first grade teacher.

Terminations: Tiffany Hoffman, cook.