Kiski Area counselors present three-year K–12 guidance plan, highlight staffing gaps
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Summary
At an information meeting, district counselors reviewed the required three-year K–12 guidance (Chapter 339) plan, outlined career-readiness programs and partnerships, and flagged student-to-counselor caseloads while saying the plan will be submitted in March.
At an information meeting of the Kiski Area School District, high-school counselor Lindsay Smith and colleagues presented the district’s K–12 guidance plan, a state-required chapter 339 submission due in March. Smith said the department reviews the plan with administration regularly and makes targeted updates before filing.
The presentation emphasized student-to-counselor ratios and career-readiness programming. Smith noted the professional counseling standard is roughly 250 students per counselor and said the district has made "enormous strides" placing counselors in every building, but staff and at least one board member described current caseloads as substantially higher than that benchmark. "It's really scary to think that you're talking 474 students to 1 counselor," a board director said during discussion.
Counselors outlined K–12 work: character and career lessons in primary grades, fourth-grade resume and career inventories, trips to the career-and-technology center for fourth graders, a sixth-grade career day and law-enforcement safety day, periodic career fairs (the presenter said the next district-wide career fair will be held in 2027), and high-school activities including a reality fair for 11th graders, a CareerLink-partnered career fair, work release, job shadowing and guest speakers. The district reported 311 high-school students are enrolled in the career-and-technical center across 13 shops; top programs cited were welding, auto mechanics, culinary arts, health occupations and auto collision.
Counselors described advisory-council meetings with students and community partners (the YMCA and a local water authority among them) and invited continued collaboration. Smith said the department will submit the updated Chapter 339 plan in March and provided contact information for follow-up questions.
Board members asked questions about specific initiatives, including whether the district has considered pursuing RAMP (ASK) school recognition; the presenters said pursuing RAMP would be a large, data-heavy undertaking but remains a long-term goal. The board deferred formal approval of the plan to the upcoming voting meeting where documented items on the agenda will be considered.
The presentation concluded with an invitation for further feedback from families and community partners.