The Carroll ISD board of trustees unanimously approved four new full-time counselor positions at its meeting Sept. 10. The counselors will be placed at the Dawson Middle School, Carroll Middle School, Carroll High School and Carroll Senior High School campuses. The district's meeting packet said the additional positions are a result of counselor roles and duties changing over the years. Students in seventh through 12th grades especially are subject to societal changes, social media issues and academic stress, the packet said. Board President Sheri Mills raised this topic at the July 16 CISD board meeting, when she asked about adding additional counseling positions as an additional safety measure. The result was in August trustees voted to help increase the district's intervention support system by adding funding for the new counseling positions. Recent operations like the CISD Resiliency Project has focused on the student's resiliency and overall mental well-being. The packet said this includes a need to increase a student's support system, which includes counseling. "Carroll ISD Administration recognizes that one of the first lines of defense for students is having that trusting relationship built with a counselor," said Matt Miller, assistant superintendent for administrative services. "They also recognize that more and more of the counselor’s time to intervene has been decreased with so many of the other added duties over the years." Combined, the four additional counselor positions at these campuses comes to a total budget line item of $321,392. The trustees all expressed their enthusiasm for the new positions. "Since the school shooting last year, we’ve identified this as one of the top things we’ve wanted to address," trustee David Almand said. The positions will be posted later this year.