Lydia Roseman

In her office on a school day, care counselor Rebecca Morris works with students on a personal level to help them be successful in school. Morris said it is needed to have a resource who is not a teacher or guidance counselor to focus on personal relationships. “Teachers have so much on their plates. They have to be your teacher, they have to be your counselor and they want to care about you as a person, but they have a lot of other things going on,” Morris said. “I’m trying to make sure I have contact with teachers and staff, [so] there’s somebody here to focus on a personal relationship.”

Tucked in the back of the counseling department is the office of new care counselor Rebecca Morris, a place she hopes to be considered safe and accessible to all students as her position grows. 

With a master’s degree in social work, Morris previously worked in special education at various schools in the Hazelwood School District. Having two young daughters at home, Morris began to look for a job that would be more convenient for her family. 

“Special [school district] is a great place to work for; you get to expose yourself to different kinds of kids and different situations,” Morris said. “It was challenging and about an hour drive. I was ready to do something different and be closer to home.”

Morris’s husband is a teacher in Parkway and notified her of an internal posting for a counseling position. After interviewing, Morris felt excited to be a part of building something new in the district. 

“Care coordinator is my title; the job description is kind of general, which is exciting because I can make it my own,” Morris said. “I was excited to try something new and have the chance to make a job whatever you want it to be.”

The technical role of a care coordinator is to act as additional support in the counseling department and currently carries a specific caseload of students who may need more access to the counseling department, but often, their guidance counselors aren’t always available.

“We have academic conversations, we problem solve, we talk about self-regulation and how to ground yourself and be successful in school. I want to let them know there are a lot of people who care about them. They can use this place as a safe place to center themselves,” Morris said. 

Greater personal relationships are a refreshing change for Morris as she is able to get to know students and connect with them.

“It was frustrating in my previous job because I had a large caseload of students and was in multiple buildings. This has been more of a personal and in-depth experience for me and students,” Morris said. 

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Currently, Morris’s office is not accessible to all students while her position is tested out, though she hopes to develop her position to best fit the needs of students. 

“[A care counselor] is not a crisis counselor where you’re dealing with crisis all day long, and it’s not your traditional school counselor. It’s kind of an in-between, and I think that’s really needed [because] there’s a hole there in services,” Morris said. “I think for this first semester, especially, the plan was to get a feel for how this flows, and then we’ll meet and see what changes we need to make.”

Morris strives to continue to build connections and become an accessible resource throughout the year and in the following years. 

“I just love being here. It was kind of scary to jump into something new and undefined, but as I’m here longer, I’m really happy, and I hope I’m serving the building,” Morris said. “I would love to keep growing this position until I can serve the building the best I can.”