MONROE - Monroe High School will be gaining a full-time school psychologist and losing a guidance counselor next year, under a plan adopted by the Monroe school board Monday.
MHS Principal Mark Burandt and Joe Monroe, director of public services, presented their plan to change staffing. Guidance counselor Amy Hopenjan is resigning to go to another district, making the timing for the change ideal, Monroe said.
The district employs 2.8 school psychologist positions: Each school has a psychologist working 50 percent time, with the exception of Parkside Elementary, which has an 80 percent position. By adding a full-time position and shifting some duties, the amount of school psychologist time would be: Abraham Lincoln and Northside Elementary, 70 percent; Monroe Middle School, 60 percent; and MHS, 100 percent. Parkside would remain at 80 percent.
Principals and staff at each school want more school psychologist time, Burandt and Monroe said in their proposal to the school board. More school psychologist time would allow schools to better monitor progress of and provide diagnostic testing for struggling students, provide additional counseling for students with mental health issues and, eventually, expand services for academically advanced students.
"This staffing change is one more step in the direction of creating a viable intervention system in all our schools," Burandt and Monroe wrote in their proposal to the school board. "It is believed that this is in the best interest of the students and staff of the district."
Laurie Plourde, who will be the remaining guidance counselor at MHS, school psychologist Jeriamy Jackson and Trudi Staffaucher, career education teacher and School to Work coordinator, endorse the change. Some duties of the guidance counselor will be shifted to Jackson and Staffaucher to make the staffing change viable.
Monroe said there should be little if any additional cost for the staff change. He noted this is the best time of the year to be seeking applicants for the fall.
The school board unanimously approved the staffing change, authorizing Monroe to post the position.
MHS Principal Mark Burandt and Joe Monroe, director of public services, presented their plan to change staffing. Guidance counselor Amy Hopenjan is resigning to go to another district, making the timing for the change ideal, Monroe said.
The district employs 2.8 school psychologist positions: Each school has a psychologist working 50 percent time, with the exception of Parkside Elementary, which has an 80 percent position. By adding a full-time position and shifting some duties, the amount of school psychologist time would be: Abraham Lincoln and Northside Elementary, 70 percent; Monroe Middle School, 60 percent; and MHS, 100 percent. Parkside would remain at 80 percent.
Principals and staff at each school want more school psychologist time, Burandt and Monroe said in their proposal to the school board. More school psychologist time would allow schools to better monitor progress of and provide diagnostic testing for struggling students, provide additional counseling for students with mental health issues and, eventually, expand services for academically advanced students.
"This staffing change is one more step in the direction of creating a viable intervention system in all our schools," Burandt and Monroe wrote in their proposal to the school board. "It is believed that this is in the best interest of the students and staff of the district."
Laurie Plourde, who will be the remaining guidance counselor at MHS, school psychologist Jeriamy Jackson and Trudi Staffaucher, career education teacher and School to Work coordinator, endorse the change. Some duties of the guidance counselor will be shifted to Jackson and Staffaucher to make the staffing change viable.
Monroe said there should be little if any additional cost for the staff change. He noted this is the best time of the year to be seeking applicants for the fall.
The school board unanimously approved the staffing change, authorizing Monroe to post the position.