School Personnel-Who To Know?
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By Anne Donegan Costas
Getting to Know School Personnel
After the first couple of weeks of the new school year have passed if you have not had the opportunity to meet your school personnel I would encourage you to meet them. The school personnel typically include the receptionist, attendance clerk, school nurse, school counselor, principal in charge of your child and the principal of the school. Sometimes these two principals might be one and the same. You may find at the higher grade levels where there are multiple assistant principals that you have a grade level principal and the head principal of the school. These people have an important role to play in the school.
Front Office Staff
The attendance clerk is the one you/your child checks in with after an absence has occurred. He/She is important in keeping track of the days missed by your child and whether those days are counted as excused or unexcused. Each student has a certain number of hours he must be in school. At the high school level a student will start losing credit to graduate if he/she have too many unexcused absences. Your student will need to report to the attendance clerk after any absence with a parent note reporting days missed and reason. Another person in the front office is the receptionist. He/She will be the main one answering the phone during the day, taking messages, contacting your child, etc. Knowing this person by name will prove helpful in the long run.
Registrar
The registrar is the person who will enroll your child into school should you come after registration has already taken place in the schools. He/She takes all your pertinent information and has you fill out the contact card. The contact card is vital and needs to have all your current information in case the school should need to find you quickly. When the phone numbers are not accurate or have not been updated it slows down the process of trying to find the parent. The registrar is the person you would contact in the event that you move within the city and need to update information during the school year.
Nurse
You will, most likely, have some kind of required interaction with the school nurse. She/He will be keeping the medical records for your child. They are the ones responsible for making sure your child has the required immunizations to start school. If your child is on any type of daily medication you will want the school nurse to know about it. Even if the child takes the medication at home it is helpful for the nurse to be aware just in case your child becomes ill at school or comes to the nurse for any reason. If your student, on the other hand, needs to take medication at school you will want to make sure you give this to the nurse. The medication needs to be in a regulation medication bottle with the directions for the medicine clearly typed. This helps the nurse to know exactly how the medication should be given to the student. The nurse is there for your and your child’s help. Sometimes an office may have a nurse’s aide with the nurse on call not far from the campus. However, the nurse’s aides have had some medical training in CPR and other medical training.
Counselor
The counselor is the person on the campus that you and/or your child may also find helpful during the year. The is the person who makes sure your student is scheduled into the correct classes for the year. Should there be any changes (middle school through high school) the counselor is the one you would talk to about these changes. In addition to schedules, the counselor schedules parent meetings, works individually with students needing extra help, works with teachers, small groups, teacher meetings, and more. You also may want to alert the counselor to any major changes that have occurred at home. These changes may include the parent’s separating or divorcing, a parent getting married, a death in the family, an older sibling moving out, and more. If your child is having a hard time at school and visits the counselor it is helpful for the counselor to have a heads up about changes in that child’s life. It is best to schedule a time with the counselor, but you might catch him/her at a good time should you stop by without calling ahead. In high schools there is often a counseling secretary or a College/Career Counselor. They would be vital for students wanting information on SAT/ACT, colleges, student scholarships and more.
The Assistance Principal and Principal
You will want to know both the Assistant Principal (AP) and the Principal of your school. They will know your child and be directly interacting with your student throughout the day. It is helpful for them to know you and you to know them.
School Personnel
All schools want to get to know their parents. Having talked with many parents over the years a few have expressed, at times, that they feel they are not wanted on a campus or don’t feel they are welcome. Having been in public education I know it to be quite the opposite. Schools not only want your help and support they need it in order to provide your child with the best education possible. They want to work hand in hand with you to help your child get the most out of his/her year as possible. Getting to know school personnel and introducing yourself comes very naturally for some and for others it is extremely hard. Take that leap of faith and do it for your child. It will help them have a more successful year.
Be Well and I will see you next time!
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