June, 14, 1999
Guiding the youngest students
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
The halls of an elementary school can echo with laughter and cries of greeting. Yet often times, the young voices are filled with fear, confusion, and even despair.
A new friend to both these children, and all youngsters within the walls of Tiffin City Schools elementary buildings, is their first elementary guidance counselor, Suzanne Reinhart. Her ready smile and effervescent personality shine through to the youngsters she is in contact with daily.
Unlike her high school counterparts, Reinhart was hired last summer to interact with children exclusively.
Before she accepted the job of counseling Tiffin's young children, she taught physical education for four years at Mohawk elementaries. After going back to Heidelberg College to earn a master's degree in Counseling in May 1998, she thought she would explore other avenues in education.
"I love teaching, but I thought it was time to see what else was available,'' Reinhart said, and added. "I've found that it was a very smart move.''
"This position is 100 percent guidance counseling,'' she explained. "I deal strictly with the emotional needs of the students. Counselors all over the United States would love to have this job.''
There are no "typical'' days for Reinhart; often the day she has attempted to schedule falls to the wayside as a crisis erupts, a parent calls with a request, or a student stops in to talk. "One day I came in and things came up, after a parent meeting and it was 1:30 before I sat down and said 'What was I going to do today,''' Reinhart said.
She is to spend the whole day working with students, and Reinhart said that some people did not understand why young children needed counseling at all.
She helps the children deal with friendship issues, stress and test anxiety, and the more difficult societal issues that affect families. Children attending school are forced to deal with family issues such as separation and divorce, and are still expected to come to their classrooms ready to learn.
"And we live in a society that has parents needing to both be employed, which pulls parents away from home,'' Reinhart said. "There are so many things that you don't think about but Tiffin is not immune from issues and problems of other cities this size.'' In all the elementary schools, over a 1,000 individual counseling hours have been logged. Reinhart reported 249 students seen, with 108 from teacher referral, 86 parent referrals and 133 students who sought out counseling themselves. Of her work, 55 instances were whole group or classroom presentations.
Parental involvement is crucial to the child's well - being and Reinhart calls parents anytime the child's situation seems remotely serious. "I want to have the parents involved as much as possible,'' she said. "We have the best success if they are involved.'' Often, Reinhart will receive calls from parents concerned about their child's behaviors, and parenting suggestions are offered.
Even though she is a mandated reporter if abuse or neglect is seen, Reinhart said that is not her "reason for being here.'' Blanket permission slips were sent home to parents at the beginning of the school year.
"Ninety percent of them said that counseling was O.K. with them,'' Reinhart said. "But some did come back and had questions. I am not here to seek out referrals, I am simply here to protect the children. I'm not looking for trouble.''
Overall, Reinhart said that the elementary guidance program has been well accepted by parents, and that faculty and staff have been supportive and accepting of the program. "As the program got off the ground, parents were more knowledgeable and willing to come forward and ask for help,'' she said.
She divides her days of the week up between three buildings, with two days at Krout, a day and a half at Noble, one day at Lincoln and a half day for office time. However, Reinhart said that the administration and board are so committed to the guidance program, that the counseling firm of Sakash and Associates of Upper Sandusky operates with counselors in the remaining three buildings.
Both Reinhart and those counselors communicate with each other through e-mail and steering committee meetings.
Reinhart has also began some small groups, and would like to add more of them next year. "I've tried to focus on the individual this year,'' she said. "Yet because there is a need, I would like to work with groups. It's neat to see how much they benefit from each other.'' She also has done whole class presentations, from lessons in how to get along with others to the problems test anxiety, especially before proficiency test time. "I try to help them relax,'' she said.
She said that if she could use one word to sum up her first year, it would be "fantastic.'' "It has been even better than I expected it to be,'' Reinhart explained. "I think there has been a need for elementary guidance counselors for a long time. And it's good that other district's, such as Carey, are using them. It's nice to see that school board's recognize the need and support it.''