Osseo Area Schools to cut 5 mental health staffers

OSSEO, Minn. (FOX 9) – Osseo Area Schools will eliminate five mental health positions next school year, a move which comes three years after taxpayers approved millions of dollars a year in funding for several things, including mental health services. 

Osseo schools to eliminate mental health positions 

What we know:

Osseo Area Schools confirmed that it plans to eliminate five mental health staffers next school year. The positions were added during the pandemic and funded by the federal government. That funding ended last year, which prompted the district to make a one-time $1 million investment to keep the positions. Of the 13 positions that were added because of the additional funding, eight will remain. 

Cuts come after referendum:

In 2022, voters approved a referendum that pumped $7 million a year into the district’s coffers to fund several things, including mental health services. The district said it uses those funds to avoid cutting or reducing positions but would not specify how much is allocated to mental health services. 

Parent concerned over mental health cuts, says staffers already strained 

What a parent is saying:

“We’re going to lose wonderful social workers, school counselors to other districts who are buying them up,” said parent Marguerite Ohrtman, who is a private practice counselor. “I have a good friend who’s a school counselor in elementary school – she has 1,100 students to one person. So, she’s doing classroom lessons, she takes on interns – as you can to do all of those lessons – she runs groups and sees individual students, but with 1,100 students there’s no way you can get to know all of them or be a support for them.”