Recently in Amy Johnson Category

Although the recession is prompting more people to put to use the childhood saying of reduce, reuse, recycle, with many companies reporting receiving larger numbers of recycled products than compared to last year, the revenue of these products has drastically dropped.  This drop has left the recycling industry facing troubled times.  

Linda Klinker, chair of Cans for the Community, a local non-profit organization that recycles aluminum containers and giving the proceeds to other Douglas County non-profits for funding, said that every month this year's can collection amount has surpassed last year's.  Klinker said that Cans for the Community collects until it raises $1,000 and gives it to an organization.  She said that this amount has become increasingly harder to reach with the drop in aluminum pricing.

"The thing that's hurting us is that aluminum dropped to 25 cents a pound from 50 cents a pound last year," Klinker said.  "We have to collect 4,000 pounds of cans.  Our business is steady, we're collecting more cans, but we're making less money."

Jim Tuch, owner of Home Recycling Service, a local curbside recycling company, said he was in a similar situation as Cans for the Community.  Tuch said that his business had been steady, and that people were continuing a strong effort to recycle.  He has heard that some recycling companies have had to resort to stopping pick-up for certain types of recyclable goods because they weren't turning enough revenue.  However, Tuch said he has not had to do that yet.

 

Sounds of cheering and laughter filter through the classroom's doorway into the halls of the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Facility.  It's the end of the quarter for the therapeutic classroom students, a cooperative program between Bert Nash and the Lawrence Public Schools.

"They're playing Wii bowling," Lanell Finneran, special education teacher and drama therapist for therapeutic classrooms.  "We ordered pizza and are just letting them hang out for their end of the quarter party."

Therapeutic classrooms is one of the programs offered to students through Bert Nash and USD 497 that assists mental health needs.  Services like therapeutic classrooms, and WRAP (Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities) are available to students at no cost or charge.  With impending budget cuts for both Lawrence Public Schools and Bert Nash, these services' funding could become particularly vulnerable.

Bruce Passman, Deputy Superintendent at USD 497, said Lawrence Public Schools and Bert Nash have a long standing relationship that's lasted over ten years.  He said while it was difficult to say what changes would be made to these specific programs' budgets, right now it was looking like millions of dollars would be cut from the district budget.

"We're just waiting for Legislature to take action," Passman said. "But the way it's looking right now, it could have a serious impact on programs."

Finneran prepares for the class day.

Finneran said that therapeutic classrooms gives students with emotional disorders a safe environment to learn.  The program buses students in grades seven to twelve from Lawrence Public Schools to the Bert Nash Mental Health Facility where the two classrooms are located.  It provides daily psychological therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, individual psychological therapy, and what she described as wellness therapy.  Finneran said students start off full-time and the program tries to gradually transition them back into their neighborhood school.

Therapeutic classrooms is funded through USD 497 and Finneran said she hadn't heard of any large budget cuts yet.  She said possible steps to cut funds could include the district deciding to condense students onto one bus, instead of the two they use now.  She said if cuts were large enough the district could possibly even decide to move the therapeutic classroom location from Bert Nash, where they currently pay rent for space, to something like a mobile classroom in the back of one of the schools.

"Our students like being here, in this building," Finneran said. "They like not being in the maddening crowd and their schools.  I don't think it would work as well anywhere but here.  It'd be really different and I think we would see an increase in hospitalizations."

Finneran said the Bert Nash location is the safest and best place for her students.  She said the whole goal of therapeutic classrooms is to keep kids with these disorders in their homes and school district instead of having to send them away.  

Scout, Finneran's therapy dog sits in a chair in the therapy room.

The WRAP program assists junior high and high school students with their barriers to learning.  Charlie Kuszmaul,  WRAP Program Coordinator, said these barriers range from everything such as areas of depression to sexual abuse.  Kuszmaul said the program has had to cut back to eight workers, who are all master-level licensed clinicians, from at one point having 22 workers.  He estimated that WRAP assisted approximately 16,000 students last year, which includes students needing extended periods of help and those who WRAP can just do check-ins with.

David Johnson, CEO of Bert Nash Community Health Facility, said WRAP currently receives $225,000 of funding from Douglas County, and $250,000 from USD 497, an amount that Passman said could take a hit.  Johnson said funding is at times hard to find.

"Everyone seems to think these are really important programs," Johnson said, "but no one wants to pay the funding."

One thing Johnson, Kuszmaul, and Finneran are all quick to point out is the importance of reaching students in the early stages of their mental health issues.  

"It's much harder to do prevention work after a certain point," Kuszmaul said. "The earlier you can teach someone, the more likely you are to help them."