Governor Rolls Out School Safety Funding Pitch at Cedar Ridge High School

Governor Roy Cooper was shuffling through the hallways and offices of Cedar Ridge High School on Thursday, meeting with school support personnel – counselors, the school nurse.

Governor Roy Cooper touring Cedar Ridge High School. Photo via Blake Hodge.

Cooper said these were vital roles for public education in North Carolina.

“Often, people who could make more money doing something else,” Cooper said, “decide they want to give their lives to education.

“And I’m grateful for that.”

Early identification of possible mental health issues, Cooper said, is needed to ensure the safety of students across the state.

“No educator should ever have to put him or herself between a student and a dangerous weapon,” he said. “No parent should ever have to wonder whether their child is going to make it out alive.”

School safety concerns have been back in the spotlight after a shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school on Valentine’s Day where 17 people were killed.

Jennifer Pepin has been a certified school nurse serving at Cedar Ridge High School for several years.

“I am able to be accessible to students who are often dealing with a wide range of social, emotional, mental and physical challenges in their lives,” she said. “They know they can come to me without an appointment at any time during the day.”

Cedar Ridge High School. Photo via Blake Hodge.

But Pepin said students at Cedar Ridge – and across Orange County – are lucky because they have nurses who are present every day.

“Without appropriate support resources in our schools,” Pepin said, “teachers are left to struggle with when and how to deal with students in need of help, and students are left to suffer until a crisis happens.”

To put more nurses and counselors in schools, Cooper is proposing $130 million in additional funding as part of his recommended budget. As part of that pitch, the governor is asking for $40 million for hiring additional support service personnel.

“They have a crucial role in students’ mental-health needs,” Cooper said of those workers. “They spot signs of trouble; they get kids extra attention and give kids extra attention that they need; they get help to kids who are prone to violence.”

Orange County Schools superintendent Todd Wirt said that Cooper’s choice to make this announcement at Cedar Ridge reinforced the district’s commitment to supporting students as a whole.

Orange County Schools Superintendent Todd Wirt introducing Governor Roy Cooper. Photo via Blake Hodge.

“It’s affirming for us that our county here as a whole – whether it’s the commissioners, school system – that we have been forward thinking and thoughtful in our safety measures and providing additional resources, especially personnel, in our schools,” Wirt said.

Local House Representative Graig Meyer is a former school social worker who also had one daughter graduate from Cedar Ridge High School and has two sons who will attend the high school. He said districts across the state needed to have access to resources to provide services that Orange County has prioritized in the past.

“We need to increase the number of personnel that are in schools that are paying attention to the elements of students’ lives that surround the academic,” Meyer said. “Our ratios on counselors and nurses and social workers and psychologist are way below the national recommended ratio.

“So, we need to increase all of those things.”

Cooper will be rolling out the pieces of his recommended budget in the coming days and weeks leading up to lawmakers working on their budget during the legislative short session when the General Assembly reconvenes next month.

Governor Rolls Out School Safety Funding Pitch at Cedar Ridge High School

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