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State grant allowing SVVSD to add three counselors to help students focus on life after high school

The counselors are coming on board through a $930,899 grant from the Colorado Department of Education’s School Counselor Corps Grant Program. The three-year initiative will fund an additional full-time counselor at Skyline High, Trail Ridge Middle and Mountain View Elementary schools.

Three new counselors will be added to St. Vrain Valley School District next school year to help guide even the youngest students toward a sustainable career path well after high school graduation.

The counselors are coming on board through a $930,899 grant from the Colorado Department of Education’s School Counselor Corps Grant Program. The three-year initiative will fund an additional full-time counselor at Skyline High, Trail Ridge Middle and Mountain View Elementary schools.

The grant program was created in 2008 to boost the number of counselors in Colorado schools and research indicates it helps drive up graduation rates, according to the CDE website.

Since the class of 2015, grant program-funded schools notched graduation rates higher than the state average, according to CDE: “Students attending high schools with fully implemented school counseling programs earn higher grades and receive more postsecondary-related information, which improves enrolling and persisting in postsecondary education.” 

The three new St. Vrain Valley counselors will focus on the district’s Individual Career and Academic Plan, or ICAP, a multi-year process that guides students toward careers and other postsecondary opportunities, said Kristin Hefflon, St. Vrain’s Student Services coordinator.

“This is a program that helps students connect the now with the future,” Hefflon said.

In 2017, St.Vrain adopted the ICAP as a graduation requirement, starting with the class of 2021, Hefflon said. ICAP calls for graduating students to complete capstone projects focused on their goals and plans.

Last year, St. Vrain’s Student Services and Curriculum departments began collaborating to further integrate ICAP activities and work into core content, the district stated in a news release.

St. Vrain students are introduced to ICAP in elementary school, where they are taught the importance of showing up to school every day and on time, Hefflon said. 

“They begin developing skills that make them responsible citizens,” she said. 

By middle school, counselors begin pushing career planning. They help connect students with their interest and aptitudes, Hefflon said. 

“If a student shows an interest in welding or automotives in middle school we make sure they are connected with the Career Development Center in high school. Or if they show an interest in engineering, we steer them toward the Innovation Center,” Hefflon said.

A bioscience career can be explored at Longmont High School, while an interest in visual performing arts can be nurtured at Skyline High School, she said.

Teachers also help by helping students connect academics with long-term planning and a postsecondary life, Hefflon said. 

“Students are learning that by the time they get to middle school and high school, their purpose is to plan for life after high school,” she said.

While this is not the first grant from the School Counselor Corps program St. Vrain has received, it is by far the largest, according to the district news release. 

Past grants have provided funding for additional counselors at Longs Peak Middle School, Timberline PK-8, and Sanborn and Northridge elementaries.

To get the state grant, school districts have to show a commitment to supporting school counselors, according to the CDE website.

SVVSD recently added a counselor to every high school and ensured there is a counselor or interventionist at every elementary school, Hefflon said.

Every district middle school has at least two counselors and there are two to five counselors at high schools, she said. 

“We showed that we value the work of our counselors and interventionists, and how they can help our students reach their goals,” Hefflon said.