A joint statement from the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Foundation and Mercer Island Schools Foundation:

“The Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Foundation and the Mercer Island Schools Foundation are grateful for our community’s commitment to the social emotional wellness of our children.

“Our two foundations have agreed to partner in raising short term funding targeted to reinstate the single elementary school mental health counselor slated for cuts in the 2019 city budget through the end of the 2019-2020 school year. We do so with the hope and expectation that the city will work productively with a group of Mercer Island citizens that are studying potential solutions for long term sustainable funding in 2020 and beyond.

“We commit this emergency stop gap funding to provide services for which our residents have voiced loud support. We expect that once a long term funding structure for school based counselors is in place, each of the MIYFS Foundation and the Mercer Island Schools Foundation can refocus all efforts on supporting their core missions, respectively, of supporting the gamut of social services offered by the MIYFS Department and the educational services provided by the school district.”