By Sara Musgrove

National School Counseling Week is Feb. 7-11, 2022, and Brownwood ISD (BISD) is celebrating its award-winning school counseling program. BISD engages with the Texas School Counselor Association, which sponsors a yearly challenge for reinforcing excellence. The award program, Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas (CREST) is a continuous improvement document that school counseling programs can use to demonstrate effective communication and a commitment to obtaining results. BISD submitted five schools for the 2021-22 school year: East Elementary, Northwest Elementary, Woodland Heights Elementary, Coggin Intermediate, and Brownwood Middle School. All five campuses earned an exemplary award. This level of effectiveness has taken three years of strategizing and implementing purposeful change. “Year one was spent on structure, year two on implementation, and year three is being spent on getting better and ironing out our rough spots,” said Danielle Howard (M.Ed., LPC-S, RPT-S), the BISD Mental Health Coordinator. “Moving forward, we continue to improve and adjust. We could not have done this without every one of our fifteen counselors’ contributions and the amazing support of our administration and board.”

“For the Heart of the Lion, and the Pride of Brownwood-” Within Brownwood ISD, the Counseling and Mental Health team focuses on their goals, encouraging each student and family to develop an understanding of what strong mental health looks like. This includes social growth, healthy emotional and behavioral choices, strong moral character, productivity, and future readiness. “We want to build real and authentic relationships with students, parents, district personnel, and community members, in order to help each student be their own best version of themselves, whatever that looks like for them,” said Howard.

BISD enters year three of a mental health initiative. “BISD has made some tremendous steps in supporting and improving the mental health of both students and staff,” noted Howard. By first incorporating Howard as the Mental Health Coordinator, she then evolved the program to integrate a Mental Health Specialist, three new counselor positions, and a full time Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) for the Special Education Department. Additionally, three new school counselor interns are completing training and education to be onboarded fully as part of the team. These new counselors assist the current counselors to reach every student at every school. “Guidance lessons have always been a priority for our younger, developing students, and now we have the opportunity to offer small group services, individual services, and wrap-around services at a level unmatched to this point,” Howard explained. “Our counselors work together as a closely knit team, and we all assist connecting and making a plan to get the resources and support people need, whether that be in-district or through our vast community connections.” The counselors throughout BISD work with a wide variety of people, both within the district and in the community, to help when ‘the struggle is real.’ “We have a wonderful working relationship with several community providers throughout the district which allows us to offer families and struggling individuals support that assists both at home and at school,” Howard said. Using those community connections, the mental health team has developed a well-rounded and equipped program which serves the entire district unlike any others in the area.

The mental health team also aims to support struggling, straggling, or disconnected students. “We are currently working on a restorative piece to our program that may allow students who have struggled with positive choices in education,” Howard said. “It is our intention that every student should leave with the tools they need to be successful, and an awareness of resources for when that success is difficult.” While the program contains multiple layers, the team aims for improving the overall student experience. The team works on restoring students who struggle the most, especially when disciplinary measures come into the picture, drawing them back into the student body to further grow and connect with educational opportunities. “We have an incredible team that looks every day to identify and pursue the “next best step,” ensuring that each student has the resources and information they need to become the best version of themselves,” Howard said. The mental health team focuses on the whole, individual student, uniting the mental, emotional, social, and physical health elements. Howard stated the team, “encourages counselors to be counselors, spending a great percentage of their time ensuring each child has a personal connection, and teaching social and emotional skills as our students are growing up in the age of technology and virtual communication and connection.” Surging use of virtual communication has influenced mental health. That, and the impacts of Covid-19, forced the Mental Health Team to work proactively.

“Throughout the world, COVID has had a serious impact on mental health, and Brownwood ISD has not escaped those challenges,” Howard said. “We are seeing our students needing more reassurance, more personal connection, and more accountability in love and growth to support their dreams for themselves.  While the counseling and mental health program existed before COVID (thanks to the forward thinking of our amazing board and stake holders), it has never been more valuable than it is right now.” The Mental Health Team continues focusing on each whole student, procuring diverse plans, connection, and collaborative efforts to deliver skilled and proactive intervention for BISD. “Mental health is as much a part of our person as physical health, and every bit as diverse,” Howard said. “We know that we need to eat healthy and work out, go to the doctor or a physical therapist as necessary to support our physical health. Wouldn’t it be as wonderful to know what we need to maintain and support our mental health? Getting enough sleep, understanding the signs of personal struggle, knowing who to get help from, and what that looks like should be as common knowledge as supporting our physical health, and we have some growing to do in that area. As parents, we can struggle with knowing how to address concerns when it gets difficult, and it should be okay and welcome to talk about that. As teachers or educators, we are tasked with a difficult job, and we should know who to turn to when things get tough. As students, we should never have to face the feeling of being alone. We can and will support each other.”

Howard and the team at BISD look forward to encouraging and assisting the various needs of each student within the district body. With proactive intervention and skilled practitioners on the team, the heart of each lion receives the benefit of the Lion Pride community. “Our board, administration, teachers, and counselors have been so vocal in the ongoing support of each child and teenager,” Howard said. “Mental and emotional health are fully supported as they pursue their academic hopes and dreams.”

Members of the Brownwood ISD Counseling and Mental Health Team include Dawna Fulton, Angie Bertrand, Marci Reagan, Blanca Martinez, Kimber Bennett, Denise Cox, Kim Ellis, Rachel Griffin, Kerri Jacobson, Jessica Morgan, Sheila Senkirik, LeeAnn Stork, Lindsey Bigham, Jimmy Ward, Leah Parker and Danielle Howard.