1. North Allegheny School District
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania AIU 3
Presented by:
Rhonda Bielawski
Shannon Connor
Diane Feliciani
Bryan Kiggins
Erica Zinsser

2. North Allegheny School District Demographics:
North Allegheny School District is an attractive community (pop. 45,000+) located twelve miles north of Pittsburgh consisting of 48 square miles.
Much of the District is suburban-residential.
North Allegheny is the largest suburban school district in Allegheny County. The District is also one of the largest employers in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, employing over 1,000 people.

3. North Allegheny School District Demographics:
The North Allegheny facilities consist of:
7 Elementary Schools (K-5)
3,484 students
8 counselors
3 Middle Schools (CMS, IMS, MMS 6-8)
1,971 students
6 counselors
2 High Schools (NAI 9-10, NASH 11-12)
2,712 students
10 counselors

4. North Allegheny School District Demographics:
Cumulative Quality Point Average for the Class of 2016 First tenth (top 10%)… …………………………………… First fifth (top 20%)………………………………………… Second fifth (top 40%) Third fifth (top 60%) Fourth fifth (top 80%) North Allegheny offers 23 AP courses and 51 Honors Level courses for students. 90% of the class of 2015 planned to attend a 2 or 4 year college.

5. Advisory Council Logistics:
Two Meetings per Year (2 hours - breakfast or lunch while networking)
Fall Meeting - October/November each year
Spring Meeting - April/May each year
Locations
On site
Local colleges, career center, businesses
Stakeholders (25-55 stakeholders typically attend)
24 Counselors
12-15 Teachers
3-6 Administrators
10-20 Parents
5-8 Former and Current Students
5-8 College Representatives
5-8 Business Owners
1-2 Board Members

6. Making our K-12 Counseling Team Stronger:
Examined program and established K-12 consistency with a cohesive developmental program
Helped to establish K-12 department goals focusing on Personal/Social, Academic and Career domains
Assisted our counseling program to become more data driven to justify department needs and wants to our stakeholders
Networked with board members, parents and community members to highlight counseling program and educate them about our department and student needs
Became more transparent and accountable to our stakeholders

7. What We Have Learned:
Stakeholders were unaware of the role of the school counselor
Stakeholders are interested and supportive
Career counseling is important to our stakeholders
Counseling department needs to stay current with trends and evolve
Goal setting and planning drives our program

8. New and Different Recommendations from Council:
Career Domain - Job Shadowing Opportunities
Stakeholders showed great interest
Legal obstacles
Using outside resources
Academic Domain - Finding Sparks and Connecting Those with Career Clusters
Elementary career lessons focus on finding sparks and career clusters
Integrate Career Cluster document with scheduling process
Change focus from specific careers to personal interests and abilities
Personal/Social Domain - Mental Health Initiatives
In-serviced Pupil Services Team (psychologists, counselors, nurses, social workers, student assistance coordinators) about mental health trends
Mental health experts presented to the council
Informational brochure about mental health disorders created and distributed to staff at senior high school

9. Report on Program Goal:
The goal was to increase the percentage of 11th grade students who have completed a job shadow experience from 16% to 25%.
Introduced the importance of job shadowing for students (Fall 2013)
Developed a goal mandating job shadowing for all juniors. Stakeholders were passionate about this goal (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)
Surveyed all juniors for baseline data (Spring 2014)
Investigated possibilities of a mandatory job shadow experience for all juniors in the district (Summer 2014)
Road blocks to implementation (Summer 2014)
Despite roadblocks, stakeholders still showed an interest (Fall 2014)
Modified goal to increase number of junior shadow study opportunities (Fall 2014)
Surveyed all juniors to gather data to determine if we reached our goal (Spring 2015)
Local IU Career Education and Academic Events Coordinator presented to Advisory Council (Spring 2015)
Exploring integration of job shadowing during School Counseling Curriculum Review (Fall 2015)
Original 2014 survey 16% of juniors completed a shadow study and 100% believed a shadow study would be beneficial.
2015 survey showed 22.5% of juniors completed a shadow study. Our goal was 25%.

10. Advisory Council Impact & Future:
Impacts:
Increased accountability and transparency of department
Assisted with promoting our department and roles
Supported the acquisition of 3 ½ elementary school counselors
Developed K-12 School Counseling goals
Improved department cohesiveness K-12
Future:
Discover impact on School Counseling Curriculum Review process
Continue having 2 meetings a year
Revise goals through input from our stakeholders
Build stronger ties with business and colleges