Central Community High School Superintendent Dustin Foutch talked about a pilot program starting next year at Central during the school board meeting on Monday, June 15.
Central will be starting a mental health support program for student athletes. Foutch serves on the 708 Mental Health Board and a lot of the local mental health providers are there. They started talking about mental health supports for student athletes because of the challenges and pressures they are under.
"Here, it can be a pressure cooker for kids at times," Foutch said. "This is something that we can do a lot of good with. There are always kids where they are in the middle of the season and the season is not playing out as well as they were expecting and they are starting to struggle with their mental health."
Foutch said the coaches are not psychologists and sometimes don't know how to help with mental health situations. Beth Riccaridi has a certification in sports psychology and mental health performance with athletes and will provide mental performance and mental wellness services to the student-athletes at Central.
There will not be a stigma attached to Riccaridi being at Central. She will talk to athletes about performing at peak performance in difficult situations.
They will use their health, life, safety money to fund the program.
"This is a pilot program that we are going to start that I think will be super beneficial," Foutch said. "It is a wide range of things that Beth will be able to provide support with."
The plan is this summer Riccaridi will meet with the female athletes during their workouts and then meet with the male athletes. They have looped in their trainers and will be their first line of defense.
"I think this will be a very super positive thing," Foutch said. "It's very innovative. A lot of colleges have something like this, but at the high school level this is something innovative."
Foutch said people might be able to see the physical stuff going on with an athlete, but there is a lot of mental stuff that goes unseen.
Also during his report, Foutch gave good news with regard to the budget. They earned about $170,000 more in interest than what they were expecting. The cafeteria service did well again and ended up with a surplus in that account. They are going to discuss if the cafeteria service needs any new equipment. Foutch also is going to propose to give those workers a pay raise.
Foutch said they have got initial information on insurance renewal rates. Their insurance company has thrown something new at them. Their increase is going to be somewhere between 5 and 9 percent if they don't shop. If they do shop and the lowest offer is something around 12%, then they won't get the 5-9% and instead will get what the closest matching insurance company can come up with.
"I have got to do some homework on that, because it is kind of a risk," Foutch said. "Our group did well last year according to the figures, so I think it would be appealing to another insurance provider to give us a competitive rate. It is a bit of a risk, so I'm trying to figure out how to play that game the best."
They will know more about the process in the July or August meeting.
Central should have had its final interest rates on the potential debt certificate by the end of last week. All of the local approved banks were made aware of the debt certificate and given the opportunity to place a bid. Looking at current one-, three- and five-year treasury rates, Foutch is not very optimistic that they will be able to secure a rate that will be beneficial to Central in the long term. If they can't secure a rate between 3.5 and 3.75%, it would make more sense to pay for the project with cash reserves.
The board approved the amended budget as presented at the budget hearing prior to the board meeting.
The Unified Cougars track and field team presented the board members with third-place state medals. The Unified Cougars placed third at state this season. This was the first time that the Special Olympics gave out enough medals for teams to give to board members and administration.
The unified track team just completed its third season. Competing in the highest division, Central won state last year and placed third this year.
Tyson Zobrist was approved as the new girls soccer coach. He has coached CC United at the club level. He is known by several of the parents and players.
"He is extremely well respected by the soccer community," Foutch said. "I think he will be great for that program."
A maternity leave request for administrative assistant Lauren Hilmes was approved. Lynn Garrett will be her substitute.
An increase of rate of pay for substitute teachers from $95 to $100 was approved.
A representative with the USDA recommended that Central should increase lunch price to $4 per meal by the end of the 2028-2029 school year. Lunch prices currently are $3.55. Lunch prices will be bumped up to $3.75 this coming year and breakfast prices will increase to $2.50.
"The goal of our food service program is to maintain a break even point of costs vs. revenues, and we are confident that these prices will allow us to do that while also ensuring that we meet the federal requirements," Foutch said.
For the 10th year in a row, Central will have the same fees for textbook rental, activity fees and course fees. Registration days for freshmen and new students will be July 28 and 29. There will be evening hours available on July 28.
The per diem reimbursement rates for staff attending conferences, tournaments and games remained the same at $9 for breakfast, $12 for lunch and $15 for dinner.
Shane Becker and Braden Revermann were approved as volunteer football coaches. Both are former Central players and played college football.
"They are both positive energy guys, so both of them will be good fits for the program," Foutch said.
The 2026-2027 board of education meeting calendar was approved.
