Page 60 - EdViewptsSpring2021

School Counselor Leadership -

Never Lose Sight of Your Vision

By Sweety Patel, Director of School Counseling Services, Carteret Public Schools

“Absorbed in this world As a School Counselor in the Jersey described how those in a Director
City Public Schools, and now as role focus on equity in policy; K-12
you’ve made it your burden. the Director of School Counseling students’ needs advocacy based on
Rise above this world. Services for the Carteret Public school and district data; the hiring
There is another vision.” Schools, I am constantly reviewing, of diverse school counselors; the
reviving, and reconstituting my vision
development, implementation, and
- Rumi (Goodreads, 2020) as I delve further into educational assessment of school counseling
As educators, we are constantly hearing leadership. The identity of school programs; and partnerships with
state associations and universities.
counselors is not clearly defined.
about vision. We know that our districts, School counselors used to be called In terms of supervision types, they
schools and departments are often guidance counselors, and there described three types. Administrative
asked what our vision is. But along with were certain responsibilities tied to types are typically those not trained in
vision, many more things are asked this title. Even to this day, people school counseling - oftentimes a vice
of us, and we ironically sometimes are still confused about what school principal of a high school is in charge
lose sight of our vision. Pragmatic counselors really do. As a Director, of the school counseling department.
concerns, statistics, societal influences, I now have the perfect opportunity Counseling supervisors focus more on
historical matters, current events, politics to clarify our role, define our identity, the practitioner role. Finally, there are
and personal concerns...all of these and spread the word on the great programmatic supervisors who focus
seemingly cloud up what we ‘thought’ work being done. There is so much on training and accountability (Gooden-
we were meant to do. We always claim obscurity out there on who we are, Alexis, S. & Quintana, T., 2020).
that we have a vision, but in our day- and thus there is an incredible chance
to-day work and with the myriad of to build a vision. An effective Director of School
expectations and agenda items of many Counseling Services is able to balance
other people and departments, it is easy The American School Counselor all three of these types of leaders.
for us to lose our reason for doing the Association recently had a “Making They are adept at the instructional
work we have chosen to do. Supervision Work” Webinar, and they and operational dimensions of the

Educational Viewpoints -58- Spring 2021