Frustration, despair, and healthy coping skills were all recurring in the guidance office this school year.
The beginning of the 2024-2025 school year started off pretty rocky. Our once full and fairly simple guidance office was thrown into a whirlwind when Mr. Hess left us. This absence, and the new guidance counselor only just getting hired, Miss. Graham had the weight of schedules on her shoulders…
for the whole high school.
When confronted with this challenge, she took it head on. Counselors start scheduling in the spring, when they all come to classes and have us fill out a schedule. They are then given five days at the start of summer and five at the end.
Now with three or even two counselors this would be a breeze. Unfortunately for the Knoch guidance office, this was not the case.
Miss. Graham was the only counselor left to handle all four grades of the high school. Even with the help of Mrs. Smith, Mr. Reiser, and Mr. Trofimuk, it was stressful.
According to Graham, there were 105 schedule requests, and that is not including the ones by email or phone, making it slightly more than years before.
Graham said “Seniors are priority to make sure they have what they need.”
Though everyone is important in the school, seniors come first. Counselors, or just the one in this case, have to make sure they have everything they need to graduate, which didn’t make scheduling any easier for anyone.
Even though it was a tough start, Graham had persisted and scheduled all of Knoch High School. She was blessed to have healthy coping skills to help out with all the counseling chaos.
Graham also wanted to let everyone know, “School counselors do a lot more than scheduling. We are here for you.”
Graham was not the only one dealing with the scheduling mess. Mrs Smith, the guidance office secretary, also had to endure some struggles.
Smith tried to help the best she could by keeping the spreadsheets of student schedule change requests accurate.
Students took their scheduling problems head first. Traveling down to the guidance office to be met with Mrs Smith.
Smith said, “Oh my goodness a lot, 126 at least!” to reference how many kids came to her for schedule related issues. This was all in the month leading up to school and the first week.
The scheduling dilemma was not only known to just the students and teachers but even other staff members. This includes our very own IT guy, Mr. Ritenour.
The only thing he had to say about it was: “Messed up schedule, (phff) no surprise.”
