Prevention & Wellness

Mason City Schools have 21 school counselors throughout our district who are available to work with students and families on an ongoing basis.  Each school provides counseling services to help students with social-emotional issues, problem-solving, healthy decision-making, crisis intervention, conflict resolution and substances abuse prevention.  School counselors help keep students emotionally healthy and ready to learn.  Counselors also regularly engage in college and career planning with students and their families.

SCHOOL COUNSELORS

Mason Early Childhood Center-  513-398-3741
Sarah Bowser  bowsers@masonohioschools.com 
Katie Brown brownk@masonohioschools.com
Ashley Goheen  goheena@masonohioschools.com

Mason Elementary- 513-398-5821
Sara Kranson  kransons@masonohioschools.com
Shannon Tipton  tiptons@masonohioschools.com 
Michelle Krugh  krughm@masonohioschools.com

Mason Intermediate School-  513-459-2850
Joy Hicks  hicksj@masonohioschools.com
Nikki Montgomery  montgomeryn@masonohioschools.com
Michelle Krugh  krughm@masonohioschools.com

MMS School Counseling Department - 513-398-6012
Cheryl Hayes hayesc@masonohioschools.com
Karen Long longk@masonohioschools.com 
Shannon Norman normans@masonohioschools.com
Lindsey Sweat sweatl@masonohioschools.com

MHS School Counseling Department - 513-398-7896
Tony Affatato   affatatot@masonohioschools.com  
Phyllis Bell  bellp@masonohioschools.com
Sally Clark  clarks@masonohioschools.com
Linda Dumstorff dumstorffl@masonohioschools.com
Katie Hicks hickska@masonohioschools.com
Seth Johnston  johnstons@masonohioschools.com
Michelle Kohler kohlerm@masonohioschools.com  
Megan Pay paym@masonohioschools.com
Marty Zack  zackm@masonohioschools.com

Your Prevention & Wellness Designers evaluate building level needs, create and align programming with district rocks, analyze program effectiveness, build capacity of staff, train staff in a variety of mental health topics, and are a front line of support for students in crisis. They work in collaboration with building counselors, administrators, intervention specialists, and contracted clinicians to build a tiered system of intervention to increase access to care. In addition, the Mental Wellness Coordinators assist building teams in developing plans for transitioning students back from clinical care to help ensure a successful reintegration within the school environment.

District Prevention & Wellness Supervisor 

Nicole Pfirman, M.Ed., OTR/L- Nicole currently serves as the District Mental Wellness Supervisor. Nicole has been at Mason City Schools for the past 17 years. She started her career in outpatient psychiatry and adult rehabilitation working both in the hospital and prison setting. Nicole worked on an interdisciplinary team as a therapist to help teens and adults who had been incarcerated reintegrate into the community setting. After spending time working with adults, Nicole decided to focus and begin to specialize in working with students with severe behavioral disorders as a pediatric occupational therapist both in outpatient and in the school based setting. At Mason City Schools, Nicole worked in the SCSF environment for 13 years supporting the sensory and behavioral needs of students with severe to profound autism. During this work she designed and implemented a Snozelen multi-sensory environment as a proactive way to de-escalate behaviors. It was during this time that Nicole began to see a need for behavioral services and support to address the increasing mental wellness needs in young children. After implementing several interventions and programs, Nicole moved into the role of District Behavior Coach, working with teams to develop systems of support and individualized behavior plans to address the behavioral and mental health students across grades K-12. Nicole then moved into the role of Special Education Behavior Supervisor providing supervision to special education and support staff within the district. In 2018 Nicole wrote a proposal for a Mental Wellness team at Mason City Schools. The Board of Education accepted the proposal and the Mental Wellness team was implemented during the 2019-2020 school year. The team currently consists of 3 mental wellness coordinators, 21 school counselors, 1 resource coordinator, 10 clinical mental health therapists, and 1 psychiatric nurse practitioner. 

Prevention & Wellness Coordinator (PK-12)

Laura Martin, M.Ed.- Laura has a Bachelors of Science, K-12 certification serving students with moderate-intensive special education needs and a Masters of Education specializing in birth through year 8 early child intervention. Laura has worked for the Mason City School district for 17 years. She began as a preschool intervention specialist. Laura then worked on a multidisciplinary team to design and implement a state of the art program for students with severe to profound Autism that became the SCSF model across the district. During that time, Laura regularly worked with students with significant behavior and mental health concerns who required a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach. Laura served as a support to families in navigating both in school and out of school support services. Laura has been a support to students, staff, and families in her knowledge and understanding of behavioral de-escalation and crisis intervention. She is a member of the behavior response team and the district crisis team to support students throughout the district who have additional behavioral and mental health needs. Laura’s experience includes program design for students with behavior dysregulation, verbal and non-verbal behavioral de-escalation, community resource support and instruction in social-emotional development.

Mason Elementary and Mason Intermediate Prevention & Wellness Designer

Breanna Lynch, MOT, OTR/L- Breanna graduated from Xavier University with a Masters in Occupational Therapy.  She is a Nationally Board Certified occupational therapist in the state of Ohio. She began her career as an outpatient pediatric occupational therapist, specializing in sensory integration and trauma-informed interventions. She spent time working one on one with clients, as well as being a part of a multidisciplinary clinical team providing therapy services for children and their families who have experienced complex trauma. All of Breanna’s clients had clinical diagnoses related to their mental/behavioral health for which families sought therapeutic services to provide caregiver coaching, tools and strategies, and connections to other professionals and/or resources, among other goal-oriented, occupation-based interventions. She continues to provide ongoing professional development opportunities about occupational therapists' role in mental health and trauma-informed practices with the American Occupational Therapy Association, Ohio Occupational Therapy Association, and Xavier University’s Department of Occupational Therapy through academic research and presentations. 

Mason Middle School Prevention & Wellness Designer

Dawn McCorkle has spent her career working with students and families across the life span in a variety of mental health capacities. She started her work in mental health as an Adult Mental Health Case Manager with Valley Mental Health Services.  Her role was to provide Mental Health Case Management for clients and to coordinate medical care, wrap around supports, and community resources. Dawn then spent time working for Butler County Children Services as a caseworker making referrals for community resources to support families and children in their homes and responding to crisis situations when needed. Dawn was then promoted to an adoption specialist and worked to complete foster care and adoption home studies for adults that wanted to provide foster and adoptive homes. After leaving children’s services, Dawn moved into a role with Butler County Education Services Center working with the Success Program.  As part of the success program, Dawn worked to coordinate services for parents and children within the school district and the community to eliminate barriers to poverty and increase academic engagement. Dawn was tapped to come to Mason in August of 2020 to provide support to our students and families across the district. She works in collaboration with our mental wellness and building teams to ensure appropriate wrap around services and referrals are in place to increase academic and community engagement.

The district has school psychologists at each school who provide services to students from preschool to grade 12. School psychologists help youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally and emotionally. They collaborate with educators, parents and other professionals to create safe, healthy and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school and the community for all students. Services provided by school psychologists include teacher and parent collaboration, consultation with administrative staff, individual evaluation of students, short-term counseling, and program development and implementation.

Mason Early Childhood Center
Grades: Pre-K, K, 1 and 2
Julie Cooper
513-398-3741 Ext: 82432
Christen Stidd
513-398-3741 Ext: 81124
 Brenna Barto
513-398-5821 Ext: 81125
Abby Musgrave

Mason Elementary
Grades: 3-4
Sarah Bidwell
513-398-5821 Ext: 50008
Caitie Zierden

Mason Intermediate School
Grades: 5-6
Jacob Burress
513-459-2850 Ext: 71023
Connie Fuller
513-459-2850 Ext: 50009
 
Mason Middle School
Grades 7-8
Lindsey Hoffman
513-398-9035 Ext: 43050
Brenna Barto
513-398-5821 Ext: 81125
Caitie Zierden
Abby Musgrave

Mason High School
Grades: 9-12
Michaela Kramer
513-398-5025 Ext: 30136
Jeff Schlaeger
513-398-5025 Ext: 30111

Hope Squad is a mental health awareness and peer-to-peer suicide prevention program at Mason High School and Mason Middle School. Squad members have been anonymously nominated by their peers. Hope Squad's mission is to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and to promote this message to the community as well as within the schools.

MHS HOPE SQAUD SITE

MMS HOPE SQUAD SITE

See Something, Say Something

An important way we practice our Comet Culture belief of “Owning the Moment” is by saying something whenever anyone has a safety concern.  Safety concerns can be about someone being bullied, a classmate who has posted something about wanting to harm themselves, an act of racism or bias, or another threat to school safety. The SafeSchools Alert is an anonymous, toll-free tip line that students, parents and staff can access 24/7— any time they need to tip off school administration about a potential crisis.  It’s a confidential, anonymous way to keep our schools welcoming and safe. We encourage anyone to submit safety concerns (even anonymously) to our administration in four different ways:

1.    Phone:    513-972-4910

2.    Text:       513-972-4910

3.    Email:     1059@alert1.us

4.    Web:       http://1059.alert1.us