BENTON — Despite the conversation on social media, Marshall County Schools will have mental health counselors and offer the same services during the 2026-2027 school year. However, Superintendent Bill Thorpe said there will be some changes.
The school district previously employed therapists and had counselors contracted through Four Rivers Behavioral Health or Mountain Comprehensive Care Center; however, the school will no longer employ its own therapists. Instead of employing therapists, all therapists and counselors will be employed by the third-party mental health organizations, which will be at the schools.
“We are not losing any mental health counselors at any level in the school. The same number that we have this year is going to be the same number that we have next year,” Thorpe said.
He said there are five mental health counselors at the high school and two each at the middle and elementary schools. Thorpe said the district is no longer employing therapists due to a lack of grant funding and wants to restructure mental health staffing.
“This year ends all the grant funding, so we have decided to partner with (the third parties),” Thorpe said. “Once again, I think we’ll have a better product in terms of being able to diagnose students quicker and not being able to — not having to send them out to other places to get the diagnosis.”
Although some therapists will no longer be employed by the school, Thorpe said they could potentially work under Four Rivers Behavioral Health or MCCC.
“(The therapists) that are employed through now are going to be — if they choose to be employed at the same school — just through a different provider,” Thorpe said. “It’s going to be the clinicians’ decisions whether they want to stay or not, but that was part of our negotiations, when we talked that they would be given the option to accept a role (with the third parties).”
Thorpe explains that this decision did not happen in a board meeting.
“(It) did not have to be because (it’s) a reduction in force. That does not have to have board approval or a board idea. I did talk with the board. The board was aware of what we were doing…This happened before me — that once these grants run out, this was the plan to transition back to a provider,” Thorpe said.
He said it is common for school districts to contract mental health services through a third-party.
“Mental health is very important to me, the staff and our students in Marshall County,” Thorpe said. “The only thing that is changing next year is who they are employed by.”
He said families and students should know that not everything on social media is true.
“I think it’s important that everyone knows that things that have been rumored or sent around are not fully accurate. They have truth in them, but it’s not all of the truth,” Thorpe said.
Although the district is retaining the same number of counselors next year, some parents posted on social media that they were concerned about how this would affect their kids, who have built a relationship with their counselor.
“I am heartbroken for my kids and others (who) relied on having these counselors and therapists in their corner,” one parent posted on Facebook.
Thorpe said the schools will continue to meet the mental health needs of their students.
“We’re going to continue to make sure we see the people who need to be seen and get them any kind of help that they may need,” Thorpe said.
Although school will be ending soon, mental health services will still be offered. Four Rivers Behavioral Health announced in a news release that its counselors will be available during the summer time at their office in the school or through telehealth.