EBF Jr/ Sr High School

EDDYVILLE-BLAKESBURG-FREMONT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

1301 Berdan Ext. Eddyville, Iowa 52553

Dr. Dean Cook, Superintendent Superintendent: 641-969-4226 phone

Mr. Steve Noble, Principal Principal: 641-969-4288 phone
Mr. Curt Johnston, Athletic Director/
Dean of Students

Parent Conference/IEP Conference Form

Practicum in Professional School Counseling

Counselor: Laura Tucker Goemaat

Attendees: Mother, student, and younger sister

Conference Topic or Purpose:

I met with the student individually at the beginning of the year, with the family during parent
teacher conferences at the beginning of October, and then again in mid-January to discuss the
senior’s progress toward graduation. This student began senior year with 29 earned credits,
out of the 52 credits needed to graduate from Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Jr/Sr High
School. Although many students would have easily given up on the idea of graduating with
their class, this student set the goal at the beginning of the year to try to graduate on time. The
student has earned 11 credits this year, and is now only 13 credits shy of graduation. While
taking a full class schedule (9 credits,) the student is also taking three credit recovery courses.
The parent requested the meeting in January to check in with me and make sure the progress
was adequate and to see if there was anything more that could be done to ease her mind. I
strongly recommended that the student attend homework support room at least once a week,
an after-school option for students who are struggling with coursework. This simply would
make this student more accountable with their time. This student does not have any sort of
disability, and is very capable. The student has lacked motivation to do well in school and it
caught up to them at this point.
Critique of Conference:

I think one of my biggest critiques of myself overall, is that I am way too easy on students. I try
to make their path the least resistant. At my core, I want to be one person in their life that
supports them in a very kind manner always. However, I think this can set students up to
become enabled by me. In this situation, I worked very hard at finding all routes for this
student to earn credits. I even went to the extent of finding the student a ride to school early
enough to be in an early bird class to earn two extra credits this year. Although it is good that I
did this for the student, and put them on a track to be successful, I could have given them a list
of students to ask for a ride instead of doing it for them. Another overall self-critique I have is
to not compare parents or students to my own experience. It is easy for me to think “why is
this all of the sudden an issue?” “did you think it was OK to fail classes for three years?”
Although it is frustrating that students and parents don’t think like me, it doesn’t make them
worse than I am. The families I am working with often fall below the poverty line and do not
have the educational experience I was so privileged to have. School does not mean the same to
them as it does me; this does not make them any less deserving of my best services, always.

Additional Comments:
Student (and parent) understanding of credits and what credits mean toward high school
graduation has been an area of concern this year. When I started working on August 1st, there
were 28 out of 61 seniors who did not have, and were not fully scheduled for, the credits they
needed to graduate. I met with 12 of these students before school started, and the other 16
once the school year got going. Since then, two of these seniors have dropped out of school.
Although these statistics are not a direct reflection of my work, it still upset me that I couldn’t
“save” them all. One of my first goals in the role of school counselor for this school district is to
help students and parents better understand their academic progress, or lack thereof. One step
I have taken toward reaching this goal is teaching a 9-week exploratory class to all of the 8th
grade students. In this class, students explore college and career options. Based on top career
choices, students are assisted with creating a four-year plan for their high school career. They
learn about credits and the importance of earning them. When these students become 9th
graders, I have set another goal to have a “crash course” type of orientation with parents to
learn about credits also. I think as I do this work, it will become part of the culture of our
school. Progress, not perfection is my motto of 2018.