“Our largest provider is Church Health Services,” Dawson said.

Dawson said there are three other outside counselors that come in to help over 80 students who need mental health services during their school day.

“We have had a waiting list for the last two years,” Dawson said. “We want to get a fifth counselor because of the demand.”

O’Connor said numbers may go up as well with trauma that students now have of living through a pandemic.

Waupun was granted a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction grant that outlined the new project.

“We knew we needed something to stand out and came up with the idea of a site clinic at one of our schools,” Dawson said.

Rock River Intermediate School had both a location, which had been a storage area, which was ideal in the facility as well as housing the largest number of students being assisted by the counselors.

“We want to grow from there and hopefully add dental and medical services like Beaver Dam has now,” Dawson said.

The project would be completed in phases and allow the area to be used without having access to the rest of the building, Dawson said. Phase one would be the three mental health rooms the students would have access to at the school.