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This open house will be hosted by Councillor Tom Adams, Budget Committee Chair, who will be available, along with members of the town's finance team, to answer questions from residents. HOW TO PARTICIPATE: If you would like to attend the virtual open house, please email budget@oakville.ca. You will be provided with a Zoom link that will admit you into the meeting. You can submit your questions to budget@oakville.ca in advance of the open house, or ask your questions during the meeting by using Zoom's question and answer function. LEARN MORE: Learn more about the town's 2022 Budget, how to get involved, and explore resources by visiting oakville.ca. The Halton District School Board's (HDSB) Di- rector of Education has called the need for student mental health support "overwhelming." "It's been an avalanche of response of students in need," HDSB Director of Education Curtis Ennis has said. Provincial funding to support the mental health and well-being of students, however, is "not enough." Half of the most recently allocated COVID-19 fund- ing targeted to mental health and well-being has been received (approxi- mately $250,000); the board is awaiting confirmation and timing of the second half. At its Nov. 3 board meet- ing, trustees were given an overview of current board mental health strategies for students and staff, as well as the results of an eight-week summer "pop- up" mental health initia- tive. The latter program drew 1,000 referrals, sup- ported over 500 students in therapy groups and 100 stu- dents for individual mental health support, said Super- intendent of Education Dean Barnes. The summer mental health support resulted in the temporary hiring of 13 Child Youth Counsellors (CYCs) and 16 social work- ers. Coming into the new school year, common men- tal health concerns for HDSB students included feelings of sadness, anxiety, loneliness and stress, said Barnes. Funding has allowed for the hiring of seven new CYCs and two additional so- cial workers for this school year. Staff have similarly been impacted and challenged by the pandemic, said Su- perintendent of Human Re- sources Sari Taha. Mental health sick leave and disability claims are on the rise, he said. Mental health research indicates that there has been a drastic increase in anxiety, burnout and sub- stance use and "clearly we're not immune to that as a school board," added Ta- ha. HDSB has also under- taken a long-term strategy through a partnership with School Board Co-operative Incorporated (SBCI) to un- dergo an organizational mental health and well-be- ing audit to assess the needs of staff, raise aware- ness of mental health is- sues, reduce stigma, and implement strategies. The board is also looking at creating mental health first aiders in schools to act as contacts for those experiencing mental health concerns. Oakville trustee Joanna Oliver expressed her thanks to the board's men- tal health staff for being able to use COVID-19 men- tal health funding quickly to put together "an amazing summer program, some- thing that's quite outside of the box I think in being able to deliver mental health supports to our students." "The numbers are stag- gering and that's probably just the tip of the iceberg in the referrals that were made. We know that there's probably many, many more students who are in need." Non-compliant employees Currently there are four permanent HDSB employ- ees on unpaid leave for non- compliance of testing pro- tocols for unvaccinated per- sonnel. There are 391 staff con- firmed as unvaccinated and 669 with an undisclosed sta- tus, all of whom are re- quired to undergo rapid an- tigen testing three times a week, a recent increase from the initial twice week- ly provincial mandate. Testing kits are paid for through federal funds; however, the board has cho- sen to pickup the cost of couriers to deliver the kits to employee homes in an ef- fort to maintain privacy. Burlington trustee Amy Collard suggested unvacci- nated staff start paying for their own tests (unless they have a legitimate medical reason), as there is a cost to taxpayers. Board chair Andrea Grebenc recommended the board consider having non- vaccinated staff pay for all, or part, of the courier costs. "We should not be incur- ring the cost of enabling people to continue to choose to be unvaccinated as that is not what's in the best interest of society go- ing forward because we will be stuck in this pandemic forever," said Grebenc. Renaming schools A member of the public's request to the Director of Education to rename Craig Kielburger Secondary School in Milton did not meet the criteria under the board's Naming and Re- naming Schools policy, said Grebenc. The incident, however, did lead Grebenc to propose the revival of a past board discussion to review all HDSB school names in the near future. 'AVALANCHE OF RESPONSE OF STUDENTS IN NEED' More funding is needed to meet the mental health needs of staff and students of HDSB. Graham Paine/Metroland KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com NEWS PUBLIC BOARD DISCUSSES MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS