Board hears social-emotional services update and college/career advising highlights
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Summary
Miss Eastman briefed trustees on social-emotional supports, counselor staffing and rising teletherapy use; two college-and-career advisors described dual-credit scheduling, FAFSA assistance and other student supports.
Miss Eastman (social-emotional services) updated the board on the district’s counseling and student-support staffing and services, describing the team’s scope and recent expansions in teletherapy.
She said the department includes roughly 13 elementary counselors, five middle-school academic counselors (with two part-time at Hershey), nine high-school academic counselors, two high-school social-emotional counselors (one split academic/social-emotional), and other support positions. Eastman said the department’s work covers counseling services, college-and-career advising, positive behavior interventions, crisis services, transition services and more.
On teletherapy, Eastman described increased use of the district’s teletherapy partner. She said that between November 2021 and October 2024 the district used 97 sessions, and that in the most recent November–February window sessions rose to about 108. Eastman said the district met with a teletherapy provider (referred to in the meeting as TeachChat) on Feb. 1 and is finalizing setup so counselors can refer students for mental-health services including psychiatry and medication management. She said Region 9 is coordinating resources after a local service (Rose Street Mental Health Service) closed.
Two college-and-career advisors presented details of their day-to-day work. Jessica (college and career advisor at Legacy) described relationship-building with students, managing TSI/TSI testing, dual credit coordination and FAFSA assistance for nearly 1,900 students on her campus. Katie Nolan (Memorial High School) outlined scheduling, dual-credit coordination (more than 250 dual-credit requests pending), Google Classroom use for senior portfolios, PSAT/SAT testing administration and senior supports; she noted the district helped more than 100 FAFSA applications in December and ran large parent meetings on financial aid and dual-credit planning.
Trustees praised the advisors’ work and discussed staffing constraints and the heavy workload of counselors and advisors. Eastman said the district will provide additional details as the teletherapy rollout proceeds. No formal board action accompanied the update; the meeting proceeded to other agenda items and later entered closed session.