Public comment: district says every building now has a full‑time counselor, highlights scholarships and counseling outcomes

During the public‑comment portion of the board meeting, Jamie Montoya Smith (D2 Mental Health Services coordinator) recognized National School Counseling Week and thanked the board for supporting school counselors. Montoya Smith said, "for the first time in D2's history, every building in Harrison School District 2 has a full time counselor or more," and framed that staffing change as central to supporting students’ academic and social‑emotional needs.

He gave two school‑level examples he said illustrate counselor impact: at Centennial Elementary, counselor Dawn Miller used academic and behavioral data to form SEL groups that targeted reading interventions; Montoya Smith said these students saw nearly 32% growth in reading where typical interventions might yield about 10% growth. At Harrison High School, he credited college‑and‑career counselor Lindsay Leggett with meeting individually with seniors and helping the class of 2024 secure more than $5.8 million in scholarships (a figure Montoya Smith described as a 46% increase over the prior year) and noted two students earned Gates Scholarships, which the speaker said cover remaining college costs.

The remarks were delivered as public comment and reflected the speaker’s summary of district counseling work and school‑level examples. Board members thanked Montoya Smith for the remarks; the board did not take immediate action on the items raised during public comment.