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NOVI, MI — Looking at ways to recruit and retain K-12 teachers, how to best support students’ mental health was the focus of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s meeting with Novi area parents, students and staff on Wednesday, August 24.
The roundtable comes as part of a back-to-school tour her administration is launching to help students get back to the routine of a regular school year following more than a year of disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a rather informal event, Whitmer and Novi Public Schools Superintendent Ben Mainka asked general questions about school safety and educational funding and answered roundtable members.
Mental health and physical well-being took up a large part of the conversation on Wednesday, with last year’s Oxford High School shooting mentioned repeatedly during the half hour the group met. Even though the two high schools are 40 miles apart, that hasn’t stopped students and parents from talking about the incident – student Ethan Crumley He shot and killed Four of his classmates in November 2021 – still weighing heavily on their minds.
While the Legislature appropriated some funding to expand school safety efforts, which prompted Whitmer to recognize it, more is expected to come through the Legislature this fall.
Related: $7B of state surplus funds could be used for future tax cuts.
Earlier this year, lawmakers approved a $37.3 million supplemental budget that — in addition to increasing funding for Oxford schools to $9.8 million — established a $15 million pot for statewide school safety assessments, as well as a $12.5 million pot. Statewide Grants for Critical School Mapping.
Whitmer said the Legislature left a lot of money in the bill during negotiations to help districts strengthen their infrastructure, and suggested some of the funding — about $7 billion in total — could be used for that purpose. . She added that gun safety, including safe storage laws and more stringent background checks, is an important part of that conversation.
“Those are things I want to do, and I hope we can do that in the next months or years, maybe,” Whitmer said. But peace of mind is essential for doing your job, keeping your kids safe…and making facilities a safer place.
Mainka made a point to praise the recently approved state education budget at the top of the roundtable – specifically the funding allocated to school mental health supports for both students and staff, as well as school safety.
Earlier this year, the state set aside more than $22 billion in its education budget, Michigan’s largest at $9,150 per student per child. That’s an increase of $450 per child, an increase from last year’s total spending of $630.5 million.
Related: Whitmer signs ‘historic’ $19.6B education budget, contains highest investment per student
Speaking to reporters afterward, Mainka said schools “can’t get enough support” in the areas of mental health and school safety, and that more infrastructure funding is needed for schools in Michigan.
“I think that anxiety, post-Oxford, has become an appropriate topic, and so we’re addressing that in a number of ways,” Mainka said. “So, as I heard the panel talk today, I think it really came up — just the joy of being able to walk into the buildings, but feeling safe. … We need to continue to make those strategic investments as a system.
He, too, told MLive that gun safety is an important part of the overall conversation about addressing mental health issues and strengthening student and staff safety at schools.
“I’m very grateful that people with so many different points of view have come together today to talk about the mental health of our children, the need for our education corps, the public safety issue,” Whitmer told reporters. Following the event. “All these things are related.”
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