Coalition for Glen Cove
Minutes
Monday, November 13th, 2006
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 7:30 PM
Present: Betty Cammisa, Claudia DelGrosso, Larry Fischer, Ted Holmes, Helen Kotzky, Laurie Lynn, Don Scarl
The school district has suggested that the Coalition organize community meetings several times a year that would enable more extensive discussions about the schools between parents, teachers, and administrators than are possible at school board meetings. Helen will choose a date for the first meeting and send emails to Coalition members and other parents asking for suggestions for agenda items. We will invite teachers and administrators who can help discuss those items.
Larry suggested that we could send notices of those meetings in Spanish to Spanish-speaking parents and also notify La Fuerza Unida about the meetings. We could invite Pedro Rivera, the ESL coordinator, to one of the first meetings.
Suggested speakers for Coalition meetings this fall are middle school principal Anael Alston, and the new assistant principals.
Invited speaker Laurie Lynn is chair of the Glen Cove Guidance Department, has been a guidance counselor in Glen Cove for several years, and before that was an admission officer at C. W. Post University for eleven years. There are three guidance counselors in the middle school and five in the high school, including three bilingual counselors. A student meets with the same guidance counselor for the three years of middle school and then with another counselor during the four years of high school. Each middle school counselor meets each year with about 250 students while each high school counselor meets with about 180.
Students find that going from fifth grade in an elementary school to sixth grade in the middle school is a big jump. Every sixth grader talks with a guidance counselor about career choices, helped by a computer program called Choices Explorer that can be used by the student and his or her parents at school, at home, or at the library. Choices Explorer includes a career finder quiz, the connections between courses and careers, videos showing careers, and suggestions of ways that volunteering in the community can lead to a career. Some middle school students have had limited experience outside their families, friends, and neighborhoods and some have unrealistic expectations about how many people actually work as professional athletes and entertainers or in the fashion industry. Each year during School Counseling Week guidance counselors encourage teachers to talk about careers and college choices. High school students participate in the twice-yearly National Hispanic College Fair at Molloy College.
Counselors, who can look at all of a students activities, grades, and interests, and know the problems that the student has outside of school, act as student advocates during meetings between students, parents, teachers, and administrators. The Guidance Department works with Ellen Li, the district student records administrator, and has access to PowerSchool, the program that records student attendance and grades.
Although guidance counselors talk with students about careers that do not require a college degree as well as those that do, most Glen Cove graduates go on to college. Guidance counselors use Naviance, a program that lets a student’s standardized test scores and grades be compared with those of Glen Cove students (without using names) who have been admitted by the colleges the student is interested in. Every guidance counselor gets first-hand information by visiting five colleges each year. After advising students which colleges are appropriate for their career goals and abilities, counselors describe the letters of recommendation, essays, transcripts, and standardized tests that each college requires and make sure that the materials are submitted on time. Each high school guidance counselor guides about fifty students to college each year.