School Support Team

Virginia Bonardi, Secretary
(845) 680-1106

GRADE 8

School Counselor:
Siobhan Maiorano
(845) 680-1109

School Prevention Counselor:
Bobbie-Angela Wong
(845) 680-1174

School Psychologist:
Colleen Geyer
(845) 680-1023

The South Orangetown Middle School Counseling Department Team consists of the school counselors, psychologists, prevention counselor and social worker. The goal of our department is to support the intellectual, emotional, social and career development of all students. We design and deliver effective curriculum, programs and services so that all students may utilize the tools that will enable them to be responsible and productive citizens in a rapidly changing world. We help students identify their abilities and interests, strengthen their decision-making and coping skills, and develop an approach to life that is uniquely their own. We are a part of the School Support Team and work closely with the grade level teams and RTI team.

The school counselors have a caseload of one grade level each and they remain the child’s counselor throughout their middle school years. Some of the responsibilities of the school counselor include:

• Monthly SEL lessons: Counselors visit subject area classrooms and deliver lessons on Social Emotional Learning, Career and College Readiness and Academic Success Skills.
• Annual progress reviews: This is a recent change to the roles for School Counselors in grades 6-12. Each year the School Counselor will have an individual meeting with the student to go over interests, goals, academic strengths and challenges, as well as potential career interests. This progress review is completed in a survey format and stored in the student’s Naviance Account. Naviance is a career and college planning tool that has been historically offered only at the high school level. Students now have access to this starting in 6th grade and will utilize this tool at least a few times a year during each middle school year.
• Individual and group counseling focused on academic growth, setting and achieving goals, and becoming a reflective and responsible learner.

The school psychologists are part of the student support network here at the middle school. As trained professionals in the field of learning and child development, their role is to assist with the solving of common problems for children and adolescents in the school setting. School psychologists partner with families, teachers, school administrators, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community. The school psychologists at the middle school provide direct support and interventions to students, consult with teachers, families, and other school-employed mental health professionals to improve support strategies, work with school administrators to improve school-wide practices and policies, and collaborate with community providers to coordinate needed services. Some of the responsibilities of the school psychologist include:

• Improve academic performance by promoting student motivation and engagement, conduct psychological and behavioral assessments, assist with the development of individualized educational plans, assist with managing student and classroom behaviors, monitor student progress, collect and interpret student and classroom data.
• Promote positive behavior and mental health by improving students communication and social skills, assess student emotional and behavioral needs, provide individual and group counseling, promote problem solving, anger management and conflict resolution, reinforce positive coping skills and resilience, promote positive peer relationships and social problem solving.
• Support diverse learners by assessing diverse learning needs, plan appropriate individualized education programs for students with disabilities, monitor and communicate with parents about student progress.
• Create safe, positive school climate by preventing bullying and other forms of violence, support social-emotional learning, support school-wide positive discipline and behavior, identify “at-risk” students, and provide crisis prevention and intervention services.
• Strengthen family-school partnerships by helping families understand their child’s learning and mental health needs, assist in navigating the special education processes, help families connect with community service providers when necessary, enhance staff understanding and responsiveness to family needs.
• Improve school-wide assessment and accountability by generating and interpreting useful student and school outcome data, collect and analyze data on risk and protective factors related to student outcomes, plan services at the district, building, classroom and individual levels.

The prevention counselor and social worker are trained mental health professionals who can assist with mental health and behavioral concerns in school. Some of the responsibilities of the social worker and prevention counselor include:

• Providing building level counseling services to students in both individual and group sessions; groups are based on student need.
• Addressing chronic absenteeism by meeting with both students and parents/guardians to identify obstacles and issues preventing a child from attending school.
• Hosting anti-vaping, anti-bullying, and school wide initiatives to motivate and inspire students to create a culture of inclusion and make healthy decisions.
• Connecting students and families to outside resources to support children’s social-emotional well-being.

Resources
What to Do (and Not Do) When Children Are Anxious
Behavioral Health Response Team (BHRT)
CANDLE Rockland
Mental Health Association of Rockland