Student and Community Services
The Department of Student and Community Services is instrumental in assisting our children and families with a wide range of non-academic barriers and psycho educational needs by providing a wide range of physical, social, behavioral, and mental health services. We have taken an aggressive approach to ensuring a safe and healthy school environment for students and staff through professional training, clear expectations, and prevention/intervention services. The department is also responsible for community and public relations and informational services with media sources, parents, and the community at large.
The Department of Student and Community Services is under the direction of Sonya Wilds. Wilds administers and serves as a consultant for district KECSAC and alternative education programming including KBHC Wilderness, KBHC Shelter/Treatment, Adanta Shoreline Group Home, Adanta Mt. View Group Home, Day Treatment (DJJ), and Pulaski Central. Other direct responsibilities include student transfer requests, attendance zones, school and district report cards, out-of-district contracts, calendar development, enrollment issues, custody issues, and any parent, school, or community student issue. Wilds also serves as district spokesperson related to media and/or other public information inquiries.
Brad Mounce serves as Court Liaison. Mounce works to ensure that all students and parents comply with attendance and truancy laws and to help families resolve problems causing attendance problems. He works closely with family court, truancy diversion programs, drug court, district court, CDW’s, and juvenile services and is the district’s liaison with these entities, participating in case conferences and court hearings. He validates truancy and neglect charges through home visits, working with school personnel, Family resource and Youth Service Centers, and the Department of Community Based services and reports the causes for truancy to the appropriate agencies. Mounce also documents home school enrollments and provides residency verifications for the district.
Lori Hall serves as the Student/Family Support Services Coordinator. Hall focuses on removing the non-academic barriers associated with academic difficulties and helping families resolve problems that interfere with their children’s education. She provides casework services and assists families in securing mental/physical health services and in meeting their basic needs. Ms. Hall serves as the district’s referral expert, staying up to date on available local, state, and federal resources for families. She consults families in crisis and helps develop plans for strengthening the family situation. She serves as a consultant to schools and works closely with students in crisis. Hall develops preventative and intervention programming for students at –risk and coordinates the Family Resource and Youth Services Centers and their related programs including the Parents as Teachers Program and school based childcare services. Hall serves as the liaison for the district between the Department of Community Based Services, Impact, and other mental health agencies. Hall also serves as Co-Chairperson of the Pulaski County Domestic Violence Council and a member of the Pulaski County Teen Pregnancy Coalition.
Sarah Roberts serves as the District Health Coordinator. Roberts develops and implements a comprehensive health services program for the district. She coordinates all health activities, offers consultation to school personnel, monitors all health requirements such as immunizations, physicals, and eye exams, performs health related staff training, and provides direct medical services to students with special health care needs. Sarah serves as a reference for the new Infinite Campus health program. She is on-call for health emergencies that arise throughout the day. She makes referrals to appropriate health agencies and maintains health records and reports as required by the State Department. Brenda Elder serves as district wide LPN who in conjunction with Sarah Roberts offer CPR/AED training to staff. They also provide care for acute and chronic students.
Kathy Hardwick serves as Attendance/Infinite Campus Coordinator. She serves as facilitator of district enrollment and attendance data and serves as consultant and trainer for school level personnel. Kurtz prepares and submits required reports such as monthly attendance, growth factor, safe schools, and end-of-year reports. She processes home school applications, and student withdrawals; retrieves information such as graduation data and transcripts for the general public; collects safe school data; maintains the KEES scholarship program; and serves as an information clearinghouse on all data maintained through IC and student services. She also serves as clerical support for student services department by processing all invoices, travel, and purchase orders.
Wanda Johnson is a Certified School Psychologist and serves as Safe Schools Coordinator (Title IV), which focuses on K-12 drug and other substance abuse prevention, conflict resolution, anger management, social skills curriculum and activities. Ms. Johnson works with both Middle and High School Student Assistant and Peer Mediation programs. Ms. Johnson is also the Crisis Response Team Leader as well as consultant for Freshman Transition and Elementary Student/Staff Support Teams. Ms. Johnson can identify, assess, and counsel students with psychological difficulties and consult with school personnel on risk/threat assessments. Ms. Johnson serves on the board for KY-ASAP (Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy). Ms. Johnson also coordinates activities of the School Resource Officers.
Sherry Girdler serves as Coordinator for Home/Hospital Services. She processes home /hospital applications, verifies information with health care providers, assigns teachers to homebound students, serves as district contact for the school guidance and attendance offices, and serves as a liaison between the regular classroom teacher and the assigned homebound teacher/tutor. Girdler also teaches any K-12 student in residence at the Bethany House Abuse Shelter.
Bonnie Salyers serves as Family/Community Involvement Coordinator. She works to promote family and community involvement in all Pulaski County Schools and oversees the district-wide volunteer program. She processes all district volunteer records checks and provides volunteer training and orientation annually for all schools and provides parent education as requested by schools. Salyers is the district trainer for volunteers and classified staff engaged in paired reading and other reading tutoring programs. She also serves as district RIF coordinator, co-coordinator for the District Character Education Program, and provides consultation and documentation on all parent involvement activities.
Sherry Super serves as Public Relations Program Assistant. She works closely with the local media to get the good news stories about the Pulaski County School System to as many people as possible. She serves as GAP (Golden Age Program) facilitator mailing quarterly newsletters and providing free activity passes to senior citizens. Super also serves as local Realtor contact and District Communications Team Coordinator. She is responsible for weekly web-site updates, quarterly phone messaging updates and both internal and external communications for the district.
Holly Bowers serves as district Community Education Director. She serves as a district contact for community organizations, promotes learning opportunities for community members and collaborates with internal programs and external agencies. Bowers is co-coordinator for the District Character Education Program. She also serves as Work Ethic Seal Program Coordinator and as a sponsor for the Pulaski Youth Leadership Team.