SHS Counseling Newsletter

We hope you had time to have fun and relax over the summer!

The South Counseling Team is excited to welcome you to the 2026-2027 school year!

We will send a newsletter each month that highlights the events, programming, and information you will need to have a successful year. Please continue to check your email for a new issue every month!

• About Our Team
• Counselor Appointments
• Schedule Change Policy
• PSEO Check-Ins
• My Life Plan
• Senior Planning

BIG NEWS!!! Our Counseling Team has been redesigned & relocated!!

We now have 5 full-time Counselors and 1 part-time Counselor on our team. Our caseloads have changed and will be organized by grade-level or program. Take a look at our new arrangement!

School Counselors

It's true - your Counselors do more than just scheduling! Our work consists of the following supports:

Academic Advising

• Guiding toward an appropriately challenging course load based on student interest and ability
  
• Staying on top of credit checks and creating student schedules
• Ensuring that all students are on track to graduate
• Providing various credit recovery options
• Supporting academic challenges and collaborating with various departments to best meet your academic needs

Social-Emotional Counseling

• Creating a space that is safe, welcoming and confidential
  
• Addressing issues around anxiety, depression, substance use and general well-being
  
• Guidance in peer and family relationship challenges

College and Career Readiness

• Helping to navigate toward post-secondary fit (college, gap year, military, work)
  
• Implementing career/personality inventories through My Life Plan

College and Career Center Coordinators

These coordinators (Katie Hanson & Kelsey Massey) will be crucial to your planning for life after high school. We encourage you to get to know their classroom, visit them often, and look out for their weekly newsletters that promote all things College and Career!

Counseling Clerk

Our Counseling Clerk does an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to enable Counselors to do what we do on your behalf! From appointment scheduling to retrieving student records, our clerk (Renee Magney) is an incredible part of our team!

You can now find all the Counselors on the first floor in room 139 (the old Main Office). We are still under construction a little bit, but you are still welcome to come in!

College and Career Center Coordinators

The College & Career Center (CCC) is also on the first floor in room 150 - right across the hall from the Counseling office.

Counseling Clerk

Renee can also be found in the new Counseling office to assist you with your needs.

Please be patient with us as we are still cleaning and finalizing our space! We are excited for all the new memories we will make with you in our new office!

Scheduling time with your counselor has never been easier!!

You can create your own appointment with just with a few clicks of a button. Click here to visit the South High Counselor webpage where you will find a link to a booking page for each counselor. You can select the date and time that works for you and what you hope to meet about.

When scheduling, please consider the following:

• Try best for a time before or after school, or during passing time (preferably, to minimize missing class).
• During the school day, you'll need a pass from your teacher in your planner!
• If the matter is urgent, inform the clerk

Here is a reminder of the schedule change policy at South!

All schedule change requests must be made by filling out a google form. All requests are due by 12:00PM on the Friday, September 4th. The Counseling Team will review all requests and communicate the outcome prior to the first day of school.

HERE IS THE FORM! - students must be logged in to their MPS email to access it!

When we meet, we will need to see your College schedule and we will need you to fill out this

South PSEO Contract (please print this or make a copy first in order to fill out electronically).

Click HERE to view the PSEO Checklist.

Counselors will continue My Life Plan lessons, in small groups and in the classroom. My Life Plan is the district-wide College and Career Readiness curriculum for all students in grades 6-12. Students complete multiple college and career readiness activities at each grade level which include surveys, inventories, discussions, and other hands-on activities. Lessons are connected to one another in a meaningful way and offer time for reflection and interaction so that students will gain real awareness of all the possible post-secondary options available to them and how to reach their goals.

In addition to the in-person lessons, South students will be accessing the platform Xello that will serve as a hub for many things:

• Virtual surveys, inventories, lessons
• Career and College exploration
• Resume builder
• Provide a portfolio/collection of college and career information that students generate during these lessons
• Connecting South to Common App and Colleges for submitting transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc. during the college application process

The goal of My Life Plan is to provide a comprehensive, equity-based, and proactive curriculum leading to all students being prepared for their postsecondary goals. Over the 4 years, this will result in a valuable "portfolio" that captures all your student's preferences and goals, that will aid them in their post-secondary preparation.

Parents... be on the look out for your invitation to access Xello and join your student's Xello journey!

Graduation

One of our Counselors, Lauren Young, will be the Senior Class Advisor & Graduation Coordinator for the class of 2027! She will be sending out information to senior families and posting the Senior Class Webpage soon!

Postsecondary Planning

There will be a lot of post-secondary planning information coming your way. Seniors will be meeting directly with counselors and CCC coordinators from September 23-25 to talk through the tasks and activities for senior year.

The CCC coordinators, Katie and Kelsey, have organized college representative visits here at South along with providing ongoing access to college/career news, updates, applications, scholarships, trainings. To learn more about these opportunities, check out the CCC Google Calendar, the weekly CCC Newsletter, and the 12 grade Google Classroom (code: jus3t3df).

Tigers....Get ready for a great 2026-2027 YEAR!