By Amanda Foust
An overview on Carmel Clay School’s counseling services was given at the school board meeting April 13. A program evaluation conducted by the counseling center, teachers and administration is currently in process. To update the board on current findings, a presentation was given by Kelli Jones, Student Services Coordinator, Susan Kiley, Educational Services Center Psychologist, and Melinda Stephan, College Counselor.
Jones explained the program evaluation and said: “The purpose is to study best practices in guidance counseling and school social work and create a vision for an ideal program.”
The process is currently not complete, but data and findings were presented in hopes to soon implement necessary changes to best serve Carmel students.
An overall theme to the presentation was that counseling is a field that often struggles with role definitions specifically within schools. The counselors emphasized that they only have so many hours in a day, so it is important to make sure they utilize their time and most effectively impact students. One of the main roles of a counselor is to focus on the whole individual student. Jones said that counselors have the ability to understand the entire picture of an individual student.
The presenters agreed that not all students develop at the same pace. Therefore, the focus should be on accelerating student learning where they are currently and ensure college/career readiness through coordinating resources, helping families, implementing programs and embedding the curriculum with academic, social and emotional development tools.
Supt. Dr. Nicholas Wahl stressed the importance of starting this process early.
“It’s never too late, but early intervention is always better,” Wahl said.
Data collection is still underway and the remaining findings yet to be presented. Overall, it is agreed that the focus should be on accelerating student learning, ensuring college/career readiness, coordinating resources, helping families and implementing programs to help whole individuals.
