Support System
It's close to cap and gown season in Butler County. Soon in auditoriums and football stadiums, valedictorians and salutatorians will be thanking teachers, coaches, parents and peers for high school memories.
But one group may get short shrift in all the commencement addresses: the school counselors in each district who were entrusted to shepherd their charges up to and through graduation.
“I'm a little bit old school. I still refer to myself as a guidance counselor. That's the training I went through,” said Doug Stanko, guidance counselor at Freeport High School.
Stanko and his colleague Nina Fulton, split the counseling duties for the 600 ninth through 12th-graders at Freeport.
Stanko said the counselors receive student referrals through a lot of different ways: from teachers, parents and student assistance programs.
“We know most of our students. We try to touch base with every student,” Stanko said.
At Knoch High School in Saxonburg, they are known as school counselors.
Lu Ann Byrnes, a counselor for 35 years, 23 of them at Knoch, and Erin Williams, a counselor for eight years and finishing her first school year at Knoch, are responsible for the 1,000 students in grades 9 through 12.
Byrnes said students are referred to her by a variety of gateways: other students, teachers and parents. She added sometimes the students themselves come in for a talk.
The most important aspect of their jobs?Stanko said, “I would say it is talking with the students. It's just to support the students. You have to be doing follow-up with students constantly.”Byrnes said, “It's a case of the students needing support services. I think we provide support and services that enable students to encounter success.”Wendy McQuiston, one of four counselors at Seneca Valley High School responsible for its 1,150-member student body, said, “I can't pick one duty as my most important duty. I think it depends on the student's needs.”“For some students, my most important duty is personal counseling, for others it might be college advising, for another it might be helping them through the financial aid and scholarship process and for another it may be simply smiling and saying hello to them in the hallway,” McQuiston said.Fulton, who has been a guidance counselor for eight years, said, “I think it is just serving the students, helping students with life after high school.”Keith Chrestay, a counselor at Seneca Valley, said his most important duty is being available for his students.“There are many tasks that I'm responsible for, but I always need to be ready to juggle things at a moment's notice if an urgent situation arises,” Chrestay said.“The misperception is that people tend to think we don't do anything,” Fulton said. “We wear many different hats, depending on the school. We wear even more hats here at Freeport.”Byrnes said it's a mistake to think that all a school counselor does is hand out college catalogs and help students fill out applications.Williams said, “We do so many things. There are classroom presentations, testing. It's pretty much nonstop.”“Many people think we just sit in our offices all day doing nothing. I have to say we are busy from the time we arrive in our office until the time we leave (which is often three or more hours after the students are dismissed),” McQuiston said.“One misperception is that we are therapists. School counselors are trained to identify issues students are having and find appropriate community resources to help them,” she said.“We are also able to assist in a time of crisis for a student, but they need to see a mental health therapist for any long-term issues,” McQuiston said.She added people don't realize school counselors are responsible for such things as advanced placement testing, Keystone testing, SAT/ACT testing, finding/advertising scholarship opportunities, scheduling for the current and the following school year, meeting with all juniors individually about their post-secondary plans, processing college applications and writing letters of recommendation.There's also planning and conducting parent evening programs, meeting with students who are upset or in crisis, and communicating with parents, teachers and administrators via e-mail or phone.Byrnes said, “It's a case of the students needing support services. I think we provide support and services that enable students to encounter success.”Byrnes said she sees the counselor's role as advocating for the students, many of whom aren't yet ready to stand up for themselves.“You just want to enable them to have the tools to be successful,” Byrnes said.Williams said that while the counselors are here to provide support and resources, they know they've been successful when the students no longer seek them out.“The last thing you want is a student to see you constantly,” Williams said. “You want to teach them those skills to empower them.”Technology has changed the way counselors reach both parents and students, they said.“We can send an e-mail blast to parents,” said Byrnes.“There a lot of things we can do to maximize our time,” said Williams.“I think electronic media has changed things quite a bit. We get e-mails from students,” said Stanko. “There's more information. It's hard to keep up. I get 20, 30 e-mails a day easily. I grew up in a nonelectronic time.”Fulton agreed the biggest change in her eight years as a counselor has been the effect of social media, both positive and negative.“In some ways, it gives us more ways to get information to students,” Fulton said. “The district has a web page and Twitter account, and we have to manage them. We can get information out more easily, but it's more work.”Darla Hoss, a Seneca Valley counselor, said demands on counselors have grown, what with cutbacks in counselor positions, more standardized testing tasks and coordination and additional paperwork.“Also with ever-changing technology and social media issues, it is a challenge to stay on top of your job when the students are 10 steps ahead with technology,” said Hoss.Byrnes said, “I think the kids are more tech-savvy. They are exposed to more things. I think kids are more worldly than they were 23 years ago. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a faster pace of life.”But, she noted, the students' needs haven't changed.“All any kid wants is to be respected and heard,” Byrnes said.Not many people stop by to say thank you, but the counselors do get e-mails from former students, said Williams.“That's joyful. We evoked something in that child, we respected that child. They want to let you know how they are doing in life,” said Byrnes.“We don't get a lot, a couple times,” Fulton said. “Sometimes you see students out in the community. One girl told me 'Thank you. I don't think I would have made it without you.' She had had a rough senior year.”
