School-based Mental Health Services Grant

WUSD was recently notified that it was awarded a School-based Mental Health Services Grant. This was a very competitive grant process. 141 districts/charter schools/consortia applied requesting over $8,000,000.00. Of the 141 applications, 52 applications were funded totaling $3,250,000. Dr. Lanora Heim co-wrote the School-based Mental Health Services Grant with other area pupil service directors. In a collaboration with 6 other Jefferson County School Districts and Jefferson County Health and Human Services the $75,000 grant will provide mental health screening, staff training in Social Emotional Learning standards to be taught in 4K through 12th grade via Second Step and DBT Steps A curriculum as well as parent and community outreach to support the mental health needs of families throughout the 7 school districts.

Safety Grant

The Whitewater Unified School District has been awarded a School Safety Grant by the Wisconsin Department of Justice for $100,063.00. These dollars will augment the district’s current safety plans and procedures. The safety grant will fund a new emergency notification system, allow the district to enhance its visitor screening process, improve communication with new walkie-talkies, and increase the number of cameras in the buildings. David Brokopp, Safety Coordinator for the Whitewater Unified School District, shared that a huge benefit of this grant will be in the District’s increased communication. We will be able to alert law enforcement more quickly in the event of an emergency and we will have more efficient and dependable interdistrict communication for daily use. Our new visitor screening system will allow us to take full advantage of our new, more secure, entries and make sure that we know who is in our schools.