MS School Counseling Office

Chestnut Ridge Middle School houses grades 3 through 7 with two school counselors. 

A full time counselor, Mrs. Elizabeth Emerick, is available for Chestnut Ridge Elementary students. The counselor works with students in Grades Pre-K through 4 in the areas of guidance curriculum, responsive services, system support, and individualized planning and counseling. She is the coordinator of the Student Support Team program (SST), peer helper program, and the positive referral system at the elementary campuses. She teaches guidance classes to our primary students in the areas of anger management, conflict mediation, and decision-making skills through using the Second Step Program. The counselor also coordinates the administration of the PSSA test.

 

Ms. Melissa Wasko....more details coming soon...

 

 

As a Chestnut Ridge Middle School Counselor, she focuses her skills time and energy on direct services to students, staff, and families. The major emphasis of a counselor's time is spent in direct services to students. Indirect services also offered includes counseling program planning, maintenance and evaluation, participation in school site planning and implementation, and alliances with community agencies. As a school counselor, she is required to deliver individual and small group counseling and large group (classroom) guidance; to teach skill development in academic, career, and personal social areas; to provide consultation and case management; and to coordinate, manage, and evaluate the school counseling program.

 

 

Individual sessions are a personal and private interaction between the counselor and a student in which they work together on a problem or topic. The goal is to help students achieve in school and life.

 

Small group counseling involves a counselor working with four or more students together. Group size generally ranges from four to eight members. Group discussions may be relatively unstructured or may be based on structured learning activities. Group members have an opportunity to learn from each other. They can share ideas, give and receive feedback, increase awareness, gain new knowledge, practice skills, and think about their goals and actions. Generally, groups are offered during clinic time and aren't mixed with other grade levels. 

Groups offered include: Friendship, Loss (coping with death), Banana Splits (divorce or separation), Girl Talk, and Relaxation (designed to decrease stress and increase academic improvement).

 

Large group meetings offer the best opportunity to provide guidance to the largest number of students in a school. The Counselor develops and presents special guidance units which give attention to particular developmental issues or areas of concern in the Middle School level.

Large Group Guidance includes: Study Skills, Career Awareness, Listening Skills, Time Management, Anger Management, Healthy Choices/Decisions and special issues.

 

The school guidance counselor is responsible for entering student information in Power School to formulate schedules. Information is collected by the counselor from teachers to place students in classes.

 

The Child Study Program is available to any student in grades 5-8 who may be experiencing academic difficulties and is not being assisted in other programs. Students are identified for the program when there are two or more failing grades on the report card. After a student has been identified, classroom teachers will recommend strategies that can be implemented to help the student achieve success in the regular classroom. Parents are a vital part of the process; therefore, parents will be notified of any plans/strategies created to help their child.