Description of the School and the Selected Counselor
Coral Springs High School is part of the Broward County Schools District (BCPS). Currently, the school has a student population of 2,535 distributed across 9th to 12th grades (BCPS, 2022). With a minority enrolment of 82.5%, Coral Springs High School is one of the most diverse schools in the area. In the project, the interviewee was Eric Belliard. He is the leader in the school counseling department, where he holds the position of Guidance Director.
The Interview
What is your position in the school?
I have been the school Guidance director for 12 years now. In this position, I am the head of the counseling department and the counseling team leader.
What are your individual roles and responsibilities in your position?
As I said, I am the team leader and the director of the departments. In my position, I am involved in designing and executing counseling programs for our students. In addition, I oversee the facilitation and execution of all counseling approaches that we use in the department.
How do you handle your team of counselors?
We are a group of professional counselors and psychologists. We work together as a team, and everything we do is predefined and well-programmed to ensure that we meet the diverse needs of the rather delicate group of young people in the school.
What are your team goals and objectives?
Our objective is to promote and enhance student achievement with an annual comprehensive counseling plan. In this case, the plan ensures that every learner is entitled to receive the proper and appropriate school counseling services.
How does the role of the school counselor support the institution’s mission?
The mission of our school is to empower our students with the knowledge and skills they require to live and work in a dynamic world. Everything we do for our students is done in the spirit of strength and unity, which is our bedrock for the better.
Please explain your school counseling/educational philosophy
We always strive to ensure that the services we provide to the learners incorporate prevention and intervention with continuous career, academic, personal, and development activities with the aim of preparing them for meaningful participation in the diverse and dynamic world.
What is the theory of approach in counseling that you and your team mostly apply to follow?
We do not use one but multiple theoretical approaches to achieve our objectives. For example, we seek to set goals and develop brief solution-focused counseling and behavioral techniques. As such, we use such approaches to therapy as William Glasser’s reality therapy and choice theory. We also use cognitive therapy, behavioral counseling, and cognitive-behavioral approaches.
How does the theory or counseling approach support student learning?
Each of these approaches is based on helping the students learn new ways of thinking, information process, and responding to their environments that are constantly changing.
As a team, how do the ASC student standards inform your work in the institution?
Our program is in line with the ASC student standards. In addition, our program seeks to ensure that the students take pride in their learning and extracurricular activities, accept mistakes as a means of learning, and communicate any problem they encounter in school, at home, and beyond (Harrison & Evans, 2017).
What do you think are the most important characteristics of counselors required in school counseling?
Since high school counselors deal with adolescents, who are a highly sensitive group, multiple characteristics are necessary. These include being friendly, able to coordinate, appreciation of diversity, easily accessible, being a good listener, being an excellent communicator, and being well-informed about the needs and ways of thinking of young people.
How does your work as a counseling team facilitate a peaceful and safe school environment?
We always ensure that we work as a team and that we share the challenges that we meet in our work. We also handle each student at a time or one group at a time. Moreover, each student is able to seek help at any time.
How do you promote equity and access for all the students in your highly diverse school?
Each student is treated with respect and dignity and as an equal at all times, regardless of social, economic, class, ethnic, racial, and other backgrounds.
What are the current strengths and/or weaknesses of your school counseling team?
I would say we have multiple strengths. We are able to graduate more than 98% of our students, thanks to the ability of the team to solve emotional and psychological challenges and issues facing individual students every year.
What is interesting about working in a school as a counselor?
I am always happy to see the kind of transition that students experience between their entry into the school and the time they graduate. In their 9th grade, they come as innocent, timid, and mostly less informed youths. But by the time they leave here, they are already young adults with the ability to make rational decisions in life.
What do you think is interesting in working with 9th to 12th-grade students?
Again, I would say that the group is highly sensitive and delicate. It is the stage of transition between childhood and adulthood, and many physical and psychological changes occur.
What skills are specifically important in working with this group of students?
Multiple skills are necessary- effective communication, empathy, friendliness, understanding of diversity, and knowing when to act are all important skills.
How do you address cultural and/or ethnic/racial differences in your school setting?
When we act to ensure that we treat each student equally, we also teach them to see diversity as the pride of their school. We teach them to understand that a diverse society is a wealthy, rich setting.
How do you and your team handle conflict and stress at work?
We work as a team. There are sometimes some conflicts, but we always address them by sharing and speaking out during our meetings.
How do you work with other stakeholders like teachers and parents in achieving your goals?
Teachers, parents, and the school are the major stakeholders in the process of ensuring that we achieve our goals. Each of these parties wants to see the school, and the students excel in academics and careers. Therefore, we always involve them when designing counseling programs and approaches.
How does the school counseling program support student advocacy?
As a team of counselors, we are the advocates of the students, their well-being, and their interests. We, therefore, act as the intermediary between the students and the other parties, especially the school administration, teachers, and the school district.
Synthesis of the Results
From the interview, it is evident that the role of school counselors is to promote and enhance student achievement with an annual comprehensive counseling plan. The services incorporate prevention and intervention with continuous career, academic, and personal development activities with the aim of preparing them for meaningful participation in the diverse and dynamic world (Dollarhide & Lemberger-Truelove, 2018). Such activities as small group guidance, classroom guidance, individual counseling for those with specific needs, and other proactive and innovative methods are involved in supporting the learners’ overall performance.
References
Broward County Public Schools, BCPS. (2022). Coral Springs High. Web.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Lemberger-Truelove, M. E. (2018). Theories of school counseling delivery for the 21st century. OUP.
Harrison, J. R., & Evans, S. W. (2017). School mental health services for adolescents. OUP.
Rausch, M. A., & Gallo, L. L. (2021). Strengthening school counselor advocacy and practice for important populations and difficult topics. IGI Global.