Minutes April 10, 2008
Counselor’s Council Minutes
Thursday, April 10, 2008
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
The meeting was held at the SWPRSC in Sublette, KS. Next year’s meeting dates were finalized, they are:
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Jeri Howard, from Ulysses, discussed their recent crisis and how the situation was handled. This led to a discussion with the counselors reflecting on their own school’s Crisis Plans. Jeri provided valuable insight about what went well and what could have been done differently. This proved to be an excellent learning experience for all.
Tom Hawkins, from Holcomb Middle School discussed how he handles his Counseling position with students, teachers, and principal’s. Tom shared how he tries to be involved with students as much as he can out of the classroom by performing morning and lunch duty so he can get involved with students on a personal level.
Next we had an IDL connect with Kent Reed from KSDE. He spoke with the group about teacher and counselor shortages and teachers quitting the profession after only a short time. He also spoke about MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) and the Kansas Personal Plan of Study (PPS) and gave out a rubric for this. He indicated that this is something that schools will need to have in place by the 2009-2010 school year. Kent shares valuable information with the group that helps to keep us updated on the current and changing Kansas State Department of Education recommendations.
Arlene Holderness discussed MTSS by giving an overview of the concept. This will look different for all schools, as it is all about schools finding a way to assess students and level them as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 and schedule interventions accordingly. This process will work concurrently as a progress monitoring method as well.
Assistant Executive Director, Bill Biermann, spoke about Counselor/Principal Relationships. He had the counselors list all of their responsibilities with their jobs and then chart which ones they felt should be their responsibilities and which ones are overflow that have become their jobs because no one else wants it!! Bill is going to share this information with the Principal’s at Principal’s Council. This was a great activity that facilitated a lot of discussions.
Jara Wilson talked about Elementary CLASS Leadership consortiums for next year. This is going to follow the same format as the Middle School and High School Leadership programs, but will be on a level for Elementary students.
Joe Coles spoke about having teachers chart bullying behavior to develop a clear consensus of when and where the students are bullying. He also discussed cyberbullying. He talked about how this is becoming a huge issue with schools now and how we need to make sure our students are educated about the consequences of cyberbullying. He did not have enough time to get through his PowerPoint, but gave a copy to the Counselor’s to look over on their own time.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 PM.
The next meeting will be held at SWPRSC in Sublette on October 9, 2008 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
