Management


 * MANAGEMENT**


 * Management Agreement (including head counselor description & school counselor job description)
 * Advisory Council
 * Action Plans
 * Use of Time
 * Calendars

**Management Agreement** The management agreement is a tool for professional school counselors to collaborate with their administration about how their department will be organized. This document typically includes information about how students will access the counselors, which counselor will serve as an "expert" in each of the 3 domains (if the department chooses to base responsibilities on counselor strengths/weaknesses), and what percentage of time will be spent on each of the four delivery system components (guidance curriculum, student planning, responsive services and system support). Also, it might include notations about when counselors will be available to students, faculty and staff throughout the day, compensation for extra work hours, and professional development responsibilities. Below is a sample management agreement created for Central Kings Manor Academy.



__The Head Counselor__ The head counselor's role engenders the responsibility of ensuring that all facets of the comprehensive school guidance counseling program are functioning appropriately. The head counselor makes sure that all counselors are working to the best of their abilities and in accordance with stated objectives, and that all students benefit from and have access to the comprehensive school counseling program. Having experience in the profession, the head counselor serves as a necessary resource for the counselors in the school counseling program and serves as a liason between the administration and the counseling department. The head counselor acts as the leader of the counseling department, who provides resources and knowledge to novice counselors.

Head Counselor Job Description The head counselor will.... - Collaborate with all counselors - Have a minimum of 2 years of experience in this counseling department - Be a professional member of ASCA, PSCA, and LCCA - Serve as a mentor for new, incoming counselors - The head counselor will see that new counselors are assigned a mentor. - Be responsible for the monitoring, assessing and conducting the program audit - Acts as a liaison between the department and administration - Schedules and leads monthly departmental meetings - Organize in-service activities such as workshops - Remains updated and knowledgeable about school protocol such as crisis intervention and other responsive services

__School Counselor Job Description__ The responsibilities of each school counselor are comprehensive in nature and are subject to change at any time based on unique student, school or community needs, or at the discretion of the principle and/or school counseling department. Below is an established school counselor job description that is published on behalf of the Central Kings Manor Academy.



**Advisory Council** According to Standard 7 of Competencies of Professional School Counselors, the professional school counselor meets with the advisory committee (7.1), reviews the school counseling program audit with the council (7.2), and records meeting information (7.3). The advisory council is typically a team assembled of school, community, and business representatives for the purposes of reviewing, revising, and evaluating the comprehensive school counseling program.

The counseling department at Central Kings Manor Academy uses a Program Advisory Council made up of many stakeholders from the school and community. Members include, but are not limited to, administrators, school board members, counselors, teachers, parents, students, therapists/psychologists, family services agency member, social workers, school nurse, community member, and local university admissions representative. The purpose of this committee is to establish program goals, provide a professional support system, review activities for consistency with needs of students and the community, and create a line of communication between the school and the community.

General structure 1. Advisory Council is chaired by School Counseling Director 2. The Advisory Council is organized, has scheduled meetings and identifies tasks 3. Meet at least 2 times a year to keep current and involved 4. Council reviews school counseling program audit 5. Council reviews program results reports 6. Council makes recommendations based on data

Functions of the Program Advisory Council 1. Provide assistance regarding the relevance of the program, job/education opportunities for current students and graduates, and the relationship between basic skills (problem-solving, communication, and employability skills to education needs) 2. Determine and respond to community needs for work-based learning programs, emerging occupations, in service of staff, and tech prep initiatives 3. Assist in establishment and selection of program materials including: a. Review program objectives b. Review present activity outlines and resources c. Assist in identifying competencies to be taught d. Suggest revisions or additions to the guidance curriculum e. Assist with program evaluation and data collection/evaluation 4. Provide in-service opportunities for teachers 5. Provide support services for students enrolled in nontraditional programs who may need additional assistance 6. Recommend and assist in obtaining resource personnel and guest speakers 7. Help plan special events such as field trips to job sites, career day, and job shadowing events 8. Help establish scholarships and awards for students and support administration in attempts to maintain legislation that affects school counseling programs

Responsibilities of the Chair 1. Oversee selection of council members 2. Send letters of appointment for new council members 3. Call the first meeting of each year, provide time and place, and establish tentative agenda 4. Work with the counselors to develop meeting agendas 5. Preside over meetings 6. Ensure adherence to agenda items at meetings 7. Help members gain consensus on issues discussed during meetings 8. Serve as a representative of the advisory council

Responsibilities of Counselors 1. Nominate potential council members and communicate to chair 2. Coordinate meeting arrangements 3. Help chair develop meeting agendas 4. Act as chair and secretary at first meeting 5. Review goals and objectives of committee 6. Provide resources to members, as needed 7. Provide feedback to members on the results of their recommendations

Responsibilities of Members 1. Attend meetings regularly 2. Respect and work collaboratively with other council members 3. Help reach consensus on issues 4. Make recommendations

Checklist for organizing first meeting: 1. Select time, date, and location 2. Plan meeting agenda 3. Notify members in advance regarding first meeting 4. Send notices to appropriate educational personnel 5. Arrange for facilities, refreshments, etc 6. Provide name tags, paper, writing implements, agendas, etc.

**Action Plans** Action plans serve several purposes in our counseling department. One way we use actions plans is to map out and plan our curriculum in a systematic way. By organizing our curriculum in this way, we help students achieve the standards and corresponding competencies in the ASCA National Standards (ASCA, 2005).

We also use action plans to attend to closing the gap activities. These action plans address discrepancies that exist in student performance, e.g. standardized test scores, graduation rates, attendance statistics, etc. Below is a sample closing-the-gap action plan that focuses on improving the PSSA scores of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

**Use of Time** __Distribution of Total Counselor Time__ Guidance Curriculum: 15% Individual Student Planning: 35-40% Responsive Services: 25% System Support: 15-20%

**Calendars** In an effort to more fully implement the ASCA National Model at our school, our counseling department adopted the use of calendars to guide our school counseling program. The process of creating the master calendar prompted our staff to identify the most salient priorities in each month (ASCA, 2005). By creating a master calendar, we were able to identify the months that were inundated with counselor programs and the months that were lacking in counselor programs. By identifying the monthly trends, we were able to assess whether our practice matched the time allocations that we had established for the delivery of our counseling program. Our current master calendar, although still a work in progress, more closely aligns with the way we believe we should be spending our time. The current master calendar is also more balanced. Certainly, there are still some months that have more activity than others, but, on the whole, the delivery of our program is more spaced out than it was before implementing the use of a master calendar.

From the master calendar, we created monthly calendars to highlight the specific activities and events for each month (ASCA, 2005). The monthly calendar is shared in the monthly student/parent newsletter that is available on the counseling services website. It is also shared with the faculty; we encourage them to display it in their classrooms for easy student access.

As another means of making the best use of our time, we implemented the use of weekly calendars for each counselor. To maintain flexibility, each counselor created a basic calendar template allocating time to each area of the delivery system, i.e., individual student planning, responsiveness services, guidance curriculum, and systems support. Each week, each counselor modifies his/her calendar template based on upcoming meetings, programs, and guidance lessons. To increase accountability, each counselor tracks the use of his/her time to assess how closely his/her calendar matches the actual use of his/her time. We are contemplating purchasing software that will allow us to track the use of our time in a more systematic fashion. Although cumbersome, we feel the use of weekly calendars has enabled us to make better use of our time.

Please feel free to click on the following links to view examples of each type of calendar.
 * [|Master Calendar]**
 * [|Monthly Calendar]**
 * [|Weekly Calendar]**


 * Materials on the ASCA National Model RAMP website (http://www.ascanationalmodel.org/) were used to develop these calendars as were master calendars from Octorara High School and Hempfield High School.