The Fayetteville-Manlius School District’s Mental Health Task Force has begun its work to support the social, emotional and mental health needs of the district’s students and staff.
Established in June 2023, the task force serves as an advisory group to district leaders and its primary focus is to support the mental health needs of the F-M school community. The task force’s work directly aligns with the district’s strategic plan goal to provide social-emotional learning and counseling, and mental health services to support the development of the whole child.
As its first undertaking, the task force will review the results of the Student Climate and Culture Survey. This anonymous, confidential and voluntary survey was administered in May 2023 to students in grades 5-12 to evaluate students’ perspective in the areas of school engagement, safety and environment.
On Sept. 11, a final report of the survey results was presented to the F-M Board of Education by the Director of Research Analytics Pat Fiorenza and Research Analyst Molly Burke of Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS), a third-party market research firm based in Baldwinsville, New York that partnered with the district to administer the survey. The results will be assessed by task force members to help identify areas for improvement.
More than 20 members serve on the task force, including students, parents, F-M staff, community and board members, as well as experts and professionals in the mental health field. The task force is co-facilitated by district partner and local mental health care provider Dr. Melissa Carman, and the Counseling Center Director at Syracuse University Dr. Cory Wallack.
The task force will meet every other month and will hold its next meeting in November.