Higley USD to begin wellness initiative

By Lucie Flagg
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Higley USD will be improving its wellness districtwide in the 2022-23 school year with the "Healthy Higley" initiative. 

Assistant Director of Counseling Dena Morgan presented an update of this initiative to the governing board at the July 20 meeting. 

"We want to continue to ensure the safety of our students and employees as they return to school," Morgan said.

For the upcoming school year, Higley USD hired five new empoyees within the district's counseling team. 

The district hired one district lead counselor, three elementary counselors and one district behavior coach. 

The lead counselor will help support other counselors within the district, and the behavior coach, Debra Welch, will coach teachers to work with difficult students and classroom managment. 

The three new counselors will work at all nine elementary schools—each counselor will be assigned to three schools, Morgan said. 

Higley USD's counseling program follows the American School Counselor Association's core domains, focusing on academic, social/personal and career issues. 

Morgan said the district will partner with agencies to provide resources for the community. It will have trainings for all staff members and parent information sessions around topics such as resiliency, suicide awareness and drug prevention. 

"This year, we are going to focus on resiliency," Morgan said. "That includes proactive and preventative ways to overcome obstacles and develop life skills."

Arizona's Mitch Warnock Act requires all educators for grades 6-12 to undergo suicide prevention training. Higley USD plans to expand those limits by training all distict staff members, Morgan said. 

All school counselors and psychologists will participate in a training titled "More than Sad" on Aug. 23. After participating in this program, they will then be able to train the rest of the staff members in their building. 

The district's preschool programs will also participate in the wellness initiative with the "Smart Support" program through Southwest Human Development, Morgan said.