Reports To: Head of Middle School
FLSA Status: Nonexempt
Position Summary:
Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, MD seeks a Middle School Counselor for the 2024-2025 school year. GCS is a coeducational independent school located in Howard County, Maryland has approximately eight hundred students, 2-year-old through twelfth grade. GCS offers a competitive salary including a full benefit package.
Overview of Essential Functions:
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Implement health and wellness curriculum and activities on a regular basis (including peer relationships, communication skills, small group coaching work, coping skills, problem-solving and decision-making, conflict resolution, etc.).
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Work closely with the Middle School Head and the Student Support Team to observe students, meet with teachers, identify student social, emotional, and behavioral needs, and provide follow-up communication and planning.
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Create an atmosphere of trust and collaboration between faculty and parents in order to enhance student learning and metacognitive growth by serving as an initial point of contact for teachers, parents, and their students who require social-emotional support.
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Create and monitor supportive plans in collaboration with families, teachers, and outside professionals when needed.
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Facilitate conversations of a social and/or emotional nature with students, both individually and in small groups
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Provide crisis intervention and short-term support for students, families, and faculty.
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Maintain accurate yearly records and ensure confidentiality of all student data according to the law and school protocols.
Key Skills and Attributes:
The Middle School Counselor is the division’s leader in providing social-emotional support for students and plays an essential role on the division’s Student Support Team. The Counselor works closely with the Academic Support teacher and the Dean of Students to ensure ongoing support for all students, partners with the Dean of Students and Middle School Head to support students in crisis and helps manage mental health emergencies. In addition, the Middle School Counselor collaborates with counselors in the Lower and Upper divisions and serves as the division’s point person for referrals to local mental health resources. The successful candidate will possess a love of students in this age group and the ability to nurture student health through counseling, teamwork, and programming. Outstanding emotional intelligence and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of students and adults are essential.
Administration
All prospective employees must be able to clear background checks, as required by the State of Maryland.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to listen, physically direct, and speak. The employee is required to stand, walk; use hands to finger, compute, handle, clean spills, tie shoe, zipper coats or feel and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and ability to adjust focus with screens, white boards, printed material, and ability to see children in detail. The employee must be able to lift at least thirty pounds. The employee is also regularly required to climb two flights of stairs.
Work Environment:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those of a school and what an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The noise level in the work environment is moderate; however, variations in noise level may occur when the employee attends school functions such as assemblies, school dances, and other events.