GRAND FORKS – Candidates for the Grand Forks School Board are largely in support of the district’s focus on improving students’ mental health, with some calling for an expansion of those services and a greater emphasis on the well-being of faculty and staff.
Mental health is a key focus for the current school board, and a comprehensive district mental health system is one of three key goals articulated in the district’s 2020-2025 strategic plan.
In responses to a Herald survey, all but one of the school board candidates expressed support for the district’s current focus on providing mental health resources to students, parents and staff.
Those included incumbents Amber Flynn, Jeff Manley and Eric Lunn and challengers Cameron Murphy and Jay Kleven.
The exception is Roland Reimers, who has broadly criticized school-based mental health care and said it would be “considered on a case-by-case basis,” but that school boards have no direct authority to decide which students receive mental health care.
“Our schools do not exist to provide health services or free babysitting services to students who are unable or unwilling to learn,” he wrote.
Six candidates are vying for four school board seats on the ballot on Tuesday, June 11. Voting begins at 7 a.m. at four locations in Grand Forks.
Cameron Murphy, who has been a harsh critic of the current school board throughout the election, gave very positive praise to the district’s focus on mental health services.
“In many ways, the district has done a great job of addressing mental health issues for students and staff,” Murphy said, comparing the district’s current number of counselors to historical data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The district currently employs 25 school counselors, 17 social workers, nine in-person and remote psychologists, one part-time therapist and a district mental health coordinator.
Lunn, a longtime pediatrician, said he believes the district is addressing the mental health needs of students and staff, but noted rates of mental illness have risen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Expanding current mental health programs and building new support systems led by mental health professionals will be crucial to better controlling this crisis,” he wrote.
Board Chairwoman Amber Flynn similarly said there was a need to “dig deeper” into students’ mental health needs, noting that caring for students and staff is the most important issue facing the district.
Speaking at a candidates forum hosted by the Grand Forks Education Association and the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce, Flynn said he has been calling for the district to add more substance abuse counselors since the district eliminated its only addiction counselor position.
Flynn’s response also highlighted the mental health needs of staff as an issue that needs more focus.
“Teacher and staff burnout is real, and in order to help retain quality staff, we need to better understand what issues are contributing to staff burnout,” Flynn wrote.
Manley’s response also emphasized the need to maintain a healthy environment for teaching staff, highlighting improvements approved by the school board during contract negotiations last year, including higher teacher salaries and increased parental leave benefits.
“The same resources that we provide to students should be available to staff,” Manley said. “Staff should have access to all of the same resources that we have in place to care for students.”
Both Murphy and Kleven’s responses acknowledged the role of parental involvement in student mental health, with Kleven describing parents as the “primary form of care and support” and Murphy suggesting parents should be more involved in addressing students’ mental health needs.
Grand Forks Public Schools is now offering a remote virtual parent education course focused on mental health.
Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education and the Grand Forks County Commission for the Grand Forks Herald. He joined the Herald in October 2023.
