It’s two weeks before school starts; you look at your schedule and realize it’s not right, so you immediately go visit your counselor. Students are familiar with this process but don’t know about everything that must happen to keep the school running smoothly.
“Every day is different,” counselor Judy Tretter said.
A counselor’s day may consist of meetings in the morning about students and procedures and appointments with students throughout the day to discuss schedules, college or personal issues.
“If a student has a crisis, then I knock my meeting out of the way to take care of that student,” Tretter said.
Tretter is responsible for 362 students. She provides them with academic support as well as emotional support.
“Every student’s needs are different,” Tretter said.
The different requirements for each student varies according to the different grade levels. Underclassmen are focusing on the transition from middle school to high school while the priority of upperclassmen is college and/or graduating.
“The difference in working with underclassmen and upperclassman is developmental needs,” Tretter said. “As a freshman, you are transitioning from a middle school setting where you are with students who are 11 to 14 and now you are with students who are 14 to 18. By the time students are seniors, developmentally they have experienced successes, learned about themselves, and figured out direction.”
While each grade level often needs different types of assistance, there are some similarities.
“All levels experience crisis, stressors and academic issues,” Tretter said. “It’s different developmentally because they are at different ages in their growth.”
Throughout the day, counselors’ duties include writing recommendation letters, helping students with college applications, answering phone calls from parents and consulting with teachers and other counselors. In addition, Tretter said they receive up to 200 emails each day.
“My biggest challenge is time and being pulled in multiple directions,” counselor Lelia Flagg said. “Each day I come in, and here are the things I need to do. I have my list of things to do, and I have a general idea of what my schedule should look like for the day.”
However, these schedules are likely to change throughout the day. Typically an hour or two into the day, a situation occurs in which a student needs help.
“It is challenging to accomplish everything while continually having to revamp my time frame,” Flagg said.
Another challenge for counselors is schedules. There are always students who want to change classes and teachers. Often some classes are offered some periods but not others, which cause numerous conflicts. Many times this results in a student having to choose between two classes.
“When students have really specific classes that they are trying to take and keep, it is hard to get all of their specific requests in,” Flagg said.
With more than 1,200 students in the school who have requests, students are constantly visiting the counseling office and making appointments.
“My favorite part is working with students,” Trish Reynolds, registrar liaison and counseling assistant, said. “I like that it’s busy.”
Reynolds maintains all of the records for transferring students and prepares transcripts, maintains counseling records, assists counselors with projects such as test proctoring and mailing and schedules appointments for the counselors. She is also the point of contact for the counseling office.
“Trying to get all of the students to see the counselors is challenging because they have multiple responsibilities,” Reynolds said.
Despite these challenges, the counselors agreed on a shared interest of enjoyment.
“I like the people, families and my colleagues,” Tretter said. “I truly enjoy people and seeing growth in people.”
