President’s Letter: Partnering for Success

As I reflect on the components of success measures, my mind navigates toward building partnerships. While we know a comprehensive school counseling program will have success with a calendar, needs assessment, using data to set SMART goals and meetings with administration and our advisory board, we must remember what partnerships can do for our profession.

At the American School Counselor Association conference, the state leadership team and I have had the opportunity to meet a variety of state school counselor leaders who share the successes and challenges in their respective home states. This past summer in Los Angeles, my ears perked when I learned of a partnership formed in Indiana between school counseling programs and the Lilly Endowment, Inc. If you haven’t been able to follow this partnership, I encourage you to read here about how more than $26.4 million in grants to 52 public school corporations and five charter schools in Indiana is occurring to support and strengthen school counseling programs.

Yes, you read that correctly, support and strengthen school counseling programs! So, what can developing partnerships do for our school counseling programs in South Dakota? I’ve been pondering this question since July and, with the help of our board members, we have made forming partnerships a priority to make an impact here in South Dakota. We envision partnerships allowing us to reduce school counselor ratios to a respectable level, filling school counselor vacancies, possibly funding opportunities for social/emotional learning trainings and curriculums and/or pathways development…the ideas are endless. Overall, we foresee that forming partnerships will allow better outcomes for our families and students by ensuring that a certified school counselor is operating within South Dakota school districts. I’m happy to report that I’m putting the finishing touches on a focus group partnership with Associated School Boards of South Dakota (ASBSD), which is interested in learning more about the mental health needs of South Dakota students. As I write this, I’ve recruited SDSCA members to visit with ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany to provide input about the mental health needs of our students across the state. As SDSCA president, I will be reaching out to other pertinent school counselor-friendly organizations with similar mission and vision statements, with hopes of opportunities to grow better outcomes for our families and students. If you have input on growing and developing partnerships, please shoot me an email at Julie.R.Nelson@k12.sd.us to discuss further.

One last reminder to mark your calendars for the 10th annual Counselor Connections Conference on November 2 & 3, 2018, on the SDSU Campus in Brookings. Remember, this is a conference designed for school counselors by school counselors, so register now and be sure to check out the conference message from Counselor Connections Chair Anna Eidem.

Contact Julie Nelson, SDSCA president, at Julie.R.Nelson@k12.sd.us.