Counselors Connect Across Alaska

How Whaley School Connects with Parents and the Community

By Robyn Harris and Elizabeth Congdon-McGee
 
Whaley School is a separate day school within the Anchorage School District. Our school focuses on student behavior while continuing to implement the district curriculum for students in grades K–12+. Our staff is highly trained in behavior management and offer skills and strategies to students so they are ready to transition back to their neighborhood school.
 
Whaley connects with our parents and our community through a variety of activities. We offer Parent University, a Fireman vs. Student basketball game, Anchorage Police Department breakfasts and a yearly Gala/Silent Auction.
 
Parent University
Parent University is a program for parents based on needs and requests we get for information and teaching. We offer Parent University 4 or more times a year and last approximately 2 hours in the evening. We offer information and dinner this night. Some of the Parent Universities that we have offered are: Curriculum, Counseling Services, Adverse Childhood Experiences/Trauma Informed School information, Agency Nights, Anchorage Police Department discussing safety issues on social media- cyber bullying and pedophiles, and many video trainings around behavior modifications or techniques that can be utilized at home.
 
Fireman/Student Basketball Game
This was a great hit during one of our assemblies in which Fire Station 3 came in and engaged in a basketball game with our students during March Madness (this year will be our second annual game).
 
The Anchorage Police Department
Supervisors and school resource officers spend one of their mornings at our school and we serve them a delicious breakfast. It is quite a sight on this morning when you see many police cars all backed in a row of our parking lot (see photo above). This opportunity allows for students to engage in positive activities with community members.
 
Yearly Gala/Silent Auction
This is a semi-formal, seated dinner and silent auction for our community. We transform our gymnasium into a beautiful environment and showcase the great work we do here at Whaley and educate the community on the philosophy of our school. We offer trauma-sensitive strategies and skills necessary in working with the many students and their parents that walk through our doors – and yours – each day. We are a guest school that works with our students to transition to their neighborhood school. The staff at Whaley is passionate about the work we do and it shows in the many ways that we connect with our parents and community.
 
Robyn Harris is principal of the Whaley School, and Elizabeth Congdon-McGee is the school counselor.

Short Survey for UAF School Counselor Training Program

By James R. Morton, Jr., Ph.D., NCC
 
The counseling program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) has news to share with Alaska’s school counselors!
 
First, the program has obtained the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation. The counseling program has met the standards set by CACREP (2016) to train school counseling and clinical mental health counseling specialties. The school counseling track at UAF is the only training program in Alaska and aims to continue training competent counselors who will serve the diverse array of K–12 students.
 
Second, I am now serving as the lead for school counseling at UAF. As a new faculty member, I am eager to learn how best to continue integrating the national standards for school counseling to meet our unique needs in Alaska. I have worked in varying roles with youth, from delivering guidance lessons and providing clinical services to adjudicated youth, to starting and directing private schools. In my role as school counselor educator lead, I would like to solicit your collaboration to ensure our training program best serves Alaskan schools.
 
Because the counseling program at UAF is the proponent for training school counselors here in Alaska, one of my goals is to collaborate with practicing school counselors, among others, on how to identify, recruit, and develop future school counselors, particularly in the remote and rural places of Alaska. I invite you to complete my short survey to contribute to better understanding the needs as seen by administrators.
 
With CACREP accreditation and input from the larger Alaska school community, we can continue to refine our training process to ensure our graduates are effectively serving our students. I look forward to joining with you to identify training needs for our school counselors in training. I can be reached at jrmortonjr2@alaska.edu or 907-474-5928 for any additional comments or suggestions.