MORROW COUNTY — It takes a village to raise a child. If the Morrow County School District had a mantra, it might be this old African proverb.

Because of a wraparound program that already was in place, the district nimbly moved to support students as they switched from in-person school to remote learning and back again, addressing pandemic-related damage done to students’ mental well-being and learning levels.

Take the case of Heppner High School senior Kamron Drury.

The 18-year-old admitted he might have fallen through the cracks without the district’s assistance. He left home a couple of years ago to escape a whirlwind of family dysfunction that brought him stress and panic attacks. Drury couch surfed most nights, packing his possessions from place to place. He worried about graduating.

“During my sophomore year, there was COVID and a lot of other stressors in my life,” he said. “I fell very, very behind. Junior year wasn’t as productive as it could have been.”

With support from the program, Drury improved his grades and moved into his own apartment in September. He secured two jobs, cooking at a restaurant and cleaning rooms at a hotel, and ran cross-country this fall. To combat anxiety, Drury meets with in-school counselor Amy George, who is employed by Community Counseling Solutions, about once a week. Care Coordinator Peggy Doherty helped Drury obtain documents such as an Oregon ID, birth certificate and Social Security card.

Team efforts and tech pay off

Superintendent Dirk Dirksen said the program, which evolved during the past eight years and was modeled loosely after existing wraparound programs in other places, hired its first care coordinator, Doherty, in 2013. Now there are seven. Joining them are six in-school mental health counselors, nurses in each community, a visiting dental hygienist, school resource officers, a self-sufficiency coach, behavior room teacher, a STEM teacher, a workforce coordinator and early childhood employees spread around the communities of Heppner, Irrigon and Boardman. Eighteen partners, from health, law enforcement, colleges, government, the InterMountain Education Service District and the Port of Morrow, together spend a little more than $1 for each the district spends.

The counselors, nurses and care coordinators focus on helping students deal with challenges of the pandemic, poverty or other situations affecting well-being.

“Without the wraparound program, we would basically be in a panic,” Dirksen said. “I feel fortunate we had this program so well established before COVID — there are a lot of school districts that have tried to add all of these programs but didn’t have any relationship with their partners yet. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

George, the counselor in Heppner, has noticed more students with anxiety. Some have expressed suicidal thoughts. Many felt out of rhythm after bouncing back to in-person school from isolation.

“It’s stressful,” she said. “It’s learning how to navigate again.”

Dave Norton, principal of Riverside High School in Boardman, said many students struggled to stay engaged with school during remote learning. Some, he said, thought about quitting school to work.

“It took everybody, it took myself, our care coordinator, our Community Counseling Solutions counselor, our school resource officer and our regular school counselor to reach those kids,” Norton said. “We did a ton of home visits between all of our team and just worked with those kids to really sell them on why do they need to finish school.”

All were convinced to give school another shot.

Ryan Keefauver, principal of Irrigon High School, described similar efforts to reengage students. When a family or student seemed to fall off the radar, a team that included the assistant principal, care coordinator and the school resource officer made a home visit to find out what kind of roadblocks the student was having. Many lacked access to the internet.

“We were able to provide hot spot internet service to our students who didn’t have it at their home,” Keffhauver said. “We set up large band hot spots for a couple of RV parks where a lot of our students live so multiple students could use them at one time.”

Drury got technical support at his grandparents’ home in Boardman, where he stayed during remote learning.

“For some reason I had the most technical problems of my whole class,” he said with a laugh. “I’m like an 87-year-old man in an 18-year-old’s body as far as technology.”

Meeting needs a must

Doherty smiled as she listened to the teen. She is passionate about this program and how it impacts students such as Drury.

“We know that the social, emotional, physical health of our students directly impacts their academic performance,” she said. “So when students don’t know where their next meal is coming from or where they’re going to sleep tomorrow or they don’t have clean clothes to wear to school or they have a toothache and can’t get to the dentist or don’t have health insurance, we know those kind of stress factors impact their ability to concentrate, their ability to be dependable and be here. Because they’re worried about surviving, they’re not worried about being at school.”

“Education is important,” George said, “but taking care of students’ needs, making sure they have a home, they’re safe, they’re fed, that’s important too.”

These days, you’ll find Drury at school or on weekends at the Gateway Cafe grilling burgers or assembling chicken Alfredo, teriyaki bowls or shrimp fried rice. Drury, who plans on a career in the culinary arts, credited the wraparound program for hoisting him out of his dire situation and letting him focus on his future.

“For a while, it was really the only thing moving me in a positive direction along with my grandparents,” he said.

Those assisting in the teen’s life marvel at his tenacity.

“As much as he’s experienced in his young life, he keeps moving forward,” said Drury’s in-school counselor, Amy George. “Yes, Peggy and I have been here to support him, but there’s a lot that we haven’t had to do. He takes it and goes with it.”