Guidance

• Give students an opportunity to talk about their education, personal, and social concerns
• Enroll new students and assist with their transition
• Help students to recognize, understand, and work through learning difficulties
• Assist students and families in times of personal and family crisis
• Assist with the design and implementation of interventions
• Assist students with the transition between buildings
• Assist students with scheduling of classes
• Do academic progress checks with students
• Assist with college admission counseling, apprenticeships, and other recommendations

Why Would Parents Contact the School Counselor?

• Concerns over school performance
• Test score interpretation
• Special needs of your child
• Family difficulties and concerns
• Information on various community support service. 

• Help students to recognize and make the best of their capabilities
• Give students an opportunity to talk about their education, personal, and social concerns
• Help students to build self-confidence and self-esteem
• Help students to recognize, understand, and work through learning difficulties
• Enroll new students and assist with their transition
• Act as a resource person for information
• Assist students and families in times of personal and family crisis
• Help students to develop an awareness of the world of work
• Assist with the design and implementation of interventions
• Assist students with the transition between buildings

How and Why Do Parents Contact the School Counselor?

• Concerns over school performance
• Test score interpretation
• Special needs of your child
• Family difficulties and concerns
• Information on various community support services
• To facilitate a meeting with all of a child's teachers

Parents can reach their child's counselor by email or phone.

Form Distribution Information 
Any type of outside form requesting information on a student should be directed to the Counselor's Office for distribution to teachers.

Scheduling Process Explained
Near the end of the school year, each student meets with their counselor to go over scheduling of classes for the upcoming school year.  Students choose and rank order elective classes in which they have an interest.  Core classes are mandatory such as Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies; while placement in others is based on test scores and teacher recommendation, these classes then become mandatory as well.  Students in Band, Orchestra, Choir or Show Choir interested in continuing are placed in those classes.

After meeting with each student, counselors input requests into the DASL student system indicating which classes are mandatory and the rank order of the electives.  Once this is done, the scheduling program is run filling in the mandatory classes first then filling in the elective classes.  Due to class size and availability of electives, students do not always receive their first or even second choice.  It is possible for a student to be placed in an elective class which was ranked as a four or five.  Often times, a student will ask to drop a class; this isn't possible for many reasons.  Either the class is required or there simply isn't another class open.

If you have questions about the scheduling process, please do not hesitate to contact the Counseling Department at Pleasant Run Middle School.