For a small rural school district serving the county seat and surrounding communities, those hours carry weight. The district’s three campuses cover kindergarten through 12th grade, preparing students not just for graduation but for what Mason calls being “life ready”—equipped to step into the world and compete in whatever path they choose. That preparation encompasses the fabric of community life, where values like waking up early, working hard, and building positive relationships shape the classroom and the town square. “The school district is kind of a hub of the community,” Mason explains. “It’s where most of the events take place, where people come to gather and get to know each other and live life together.” This interconnection runs deep, manifesting in what the district calls Team Quitman, an active partnership with city leadership, police department, county commissioners, and judges.The collaboration brings school resource officers into buildings and creates opportunities that leverage civic relationships for students’ benefit, turning a geographic community into an educational ecosystem where success becomes a shared responsibility. MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS INITIATIVES The pandemic’s aftermath continues to reverberate through school districts nationwide, but Quitman ISD has taken proactive steps to address student and staff wellbeing. Through a partnership with Andrew Centre, the district contracts mental health services that bring counselors onto campuses two to three times weekly.“We contract with them with the help of our Wood County hospital district to provide mental health services to students,” Mason says. “That’s a referral process, but they come, and they meet with students to provide those mental health supports.” The arrangement is an unusual resource for rural districts, where access to specialized services often requires families to travel significant distances. Wood County’s healthcare infrastructure strengthened considerably with the 2014 opening of UT Health Quitman, an 84,000-square-foot facility that transformed local medical capacity. The hospital district’s support includes educational partnerships 317 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 11 QUITMAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
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