Our School Food Pantry: Still Open but Will Look a Little Different!

We are excited that our School Food Pantry will still be open on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month and that we will still be able to help those in our community who need extra help and support. But with the COVID-19 virus and restrictions, our pantry will definitely look a little different. Whether you have been to our School Pantry or not, we want to help anyone we can in our community. Here is what you need to know for our upcoming openings. Please read and spread the word!

*When are we open: 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. HOWEVER, we will be open the following upcoming dates:
Thursday, March 26th, 4-6 p.m.
Thursday, April 2nd, 4-6 p.m.

*Where are we located: Our actual pantry is located just inside the east elementary doors right across from the nurse's office. HOWEVER, during all future openings (until school/COVID-19 restrictions are lifted), we will have the food/supply items just outside the east entry on the sidewalk or just inside the first set of doors.

*How will the pantry operate now/currently: Typically, people have been able to come into our pantry and take what they need. We limited people to one milk, one dozen eggs, and one bread. And limited to one bag of freezer items and up to 5 personal care/hygiene items. The rest of the items were take what your family needed. HOWEVER, with the pantry moving to the outside and trying to ration what we have and keep the line moving, this will be our system for the foreseeable future:
--All items will be pre-bagged by our volunteers
--Those who visit our pantry will sign in as they always do (do not need to prove financial need or bring ID)
--Each person/family will get one milk, one dozen eggs, one bread (we are trying to get enough of these to provide for all), one bag of freezer items pre-bagged, one bag of personal care items (pre-bagged), and one or two bags of dry goods/non-perishables. Once you have these bags, you are able to leave. So it should go quickly for all who attend, but you won't be able to "shop" as you have been able to before.
--We do ask that all who attend our pantry practice safe social distancing as much as possible. And as much as we would love to see your kids and our students, please leave them at home or in the car. This will keep the kids healthy and not risk exposure!
--Until further notice, our School Food Pantry will operate in this manner.

*Who can use our pantry:   Anyone in our community who could benefit from this resource is invited to stop in. You do not have to bring your ID and do not have to prove financial need. If/when school is in session, our students can use the pantry any day of the week. They can fill a backpack and bring food home to their family. We sometimes get a large variety of snacks that students can use daily.

*Where do we get our food/supplies: We get most of our food from the Food Bank of Iowa as they are the group that helps set up School Food Pantries. We also purchase some of our fresh food from Fareway using our Pantry account that is funded by donations and fundraisers. At times throughout the year, we have different groups and families donate food and supplies to our pantry. Thank you to all who have donated in the past...you are amazing!

  I think that is about it for now. Thank you for your support and thank you for helping spread the word. We do not know how many will show up to our pantry the next couple weeks but we are hoping to help as many as we can!

8th Grade Needs Assessment 2016

8th Graders, please take the following survey by marking "Agree" or "Disagree" for each question. If you would like more information or help with a certain area, mark agree. Ms. Flagor and Mr. Barry will be setting up groups for certain areas and in other areas may just be meeting with you individually. Bottom line, if you would like help in a  certain area, mark "Agree" and feel free to come see either of us in our offices anytime you are in need. Thank you!

8th Grade Student Needs Assessment

Students, please take the following survey by clicking "Agree" or "Disagree" for each statement. If you need help in an area, click "Agree". That help may be by offering you an invite to a group that will be working with that topic, inviting you in to speak with a counselor about the issue, or by sending you information about that topic. Either way, we want to know what our students need help with. You answers will be kept confidential with only the counselors knowing what you personally marked for answers. We will collect class data to provide to your teachers, but will not use individual names. Thank you for taking the time to do this survey and please stop in our office if you ever need help with anything!!

6th Grade Needs Assessment

Students, please take the following survey by clicking "Agree" or "Disagree" for each statement. If you need help in an area, click "Agree". That help may be by offering you an invite to a group that will be working with that topic, inviting you in to speak with a counselor about the issue, or by sending you information about that topic. Either way, we want to know what our students need help with. You answers will be kept confidential with only the counselors knowing what you personally marked for answers. We will collect class data to provide to your teachers, but will not use individual names. Thank you for taking the time to do this survey and please stop in our office if you ever need help with anything!!

Carlisle Continues School-Based Therapy Program for 2015-16

     Adrienne Latoure started the school year as our district’s School-Based Licensed Mental Health Therapist. Her position will allow for students to meet with a therapist on school grounds and provide extra support for our students and families in need. Counselors will be contacting parents and making referrals for students they feel can benefit from meeting with a therapist if they are not currently meeting with a therapist outside of our school system. Parents can also contact their child’s school counselor if they feel their child could benefit from this service. Carlisle counselors are excited to partner with Adrienne to better serve the socioemotional needs of our students. Please contact the schoolcounselor in your child’s building if you have questions. Thank you!

Carlisle Community School Counselors & Interventionist

Leah Heidemann & Traci Lee (High School)  989-0831

Ben Barry & Kim Flagor (Middle School)  989-0833

Kim Flagor (Hartford)  989-0316

Jane Phillips & Matt Berryhill (Elementary) 989-0339

6th Grade Student Needs Assessment

Students who are in 6th grade, please take the following survey. Please put your first and last name in the answer blank asking for your name and then answers "Agree" or "Disagree" on each of the following questions after that. Mr. Barry will use your answers to either meet with you or set up a group of students to meet with him, Ms. Flagor, or our Lifeline Resource counseling group. Thank you!

Great Interactive Slideshow Showing Poverty Levels in the U.S.

   Please take a moment to click on this link and click through the 6 slides this website has about Poverty in our country. Many of the slides are interactive where you can learn more by hovering over certain parts. Really makes you think about the poverty in our country and how large of an issue it truly is. The part that really got to me was seeing how children in poverty really make up the biggest population of Americans currently below the poverty level. People are below the poverty level for a variety of reasons, but one reason that jumps out in these slides is education. The less education a person has, the more likely they are to be below the poverty line. Whatever the reason, we need people to help lift people out of poverty, especially the children. At Carlisle, our counselors are always looking for resources for families in need. So, if you are a family in need or find yourself at some point during this year in crisis and in need of something, please contact us. Call, email, come in to see us, whatever, just let us know what you need and we can see if we can track down the resources to help. Also pay attention to updates throughout the year for clothing drives, shoes and boots that fit programs, Operation Backpack, supply drives, and many other programs we help to offer. And again, please take a look at the website below to see the most current data. Thank you!

Poverty Data click here!

This Week is National School Counselor's Week!

SCHOOL COUNSELORS CELEBRATE DURING NATIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING WEEK, FEBRUARY 6TH– 10TH

National School Counseling Week, sponsored by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), will be celebrated from February 6th– 10th, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of professional school counselors within U.S. school systems and how students are different as a result of what school counselors do. National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.

School counselors are actively engaged in helping students examine their abilities, strengths, interests and talents; work in a partnership with parents as they encounter the challenges of raising children in today's world; focus on positive ways to enhance students' social/personal,

educational, and career development; and work with teachers and other educators to provide an educational system where students can realize their potential and set healthy, realistic, and optimistic aspirations for themselves. Professional school counselors are certified, experienced

educators with a master's degree in guidance and counseling. The combination of their training and experience makes them an integral part of the total educational program.

Carlisle Community School District has a strong team of professional school counselors who work with students every day. The counselors host many events throughout the school year, including: College Planning Night, Financial Aid Night, Smart Discipline Parenting Seminar, Mad About Money Theater night, Education Expo, Resource Fair, Career Day, Character Education, Junior Achievement Biz Town Curriculum and Field Trip, Operation Backpack, and Big Cats Little Cats Mentoring Program.

Be sure to thank the counselors for all the work they do with our students!

Elementary Counselors: Rhonda Ray and Julie Nation

Hartford and Middle School Counselor: Kim Flagor Fuller

Middle School Counselor: Ben Barry

High School Counselors: Leah Heidemann and Traci Le

More Partnership for a Drug Free America links

I just went through about 75 blog entries from the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Here are 3 that stood out to me. Please read during some down time this week and possibly even discuss with your family. Thanks!

Click here to read about Prescription Drug names and information. Your kids may be taking prescription drugs without you knowing about it. They may be attending "Pharm parties" where they share their pills with other kids and take theirs. They may be stealing your prescription drugs. Or maybe they are not...but they know someone who is. Either way, the link within this blog post has some great information.

Click here to read about Marijuana causes driver impairment and accidents. Duh. I know. But many kids don't actually believe that marijuana causes impairment and is not "bad" like alcohol or other drugs are. Well, read this recent study and you will see it is just as bad.

Click here to learn how your School Counselor can be Your First Contact When You Think Your Child Might be Using Drugs. I really hope I can help in any way possible. When anyone has a problem, especially a young person, it takes a committed and supportive group of people to help the person through issues like drugs and drug addictions. Please, contact me if you need help.

New Parent/Teen Helpline

I received this email from our Warren County Substance Abuse Taskforce coordinator, Mike Wenger. I will just copy and paste the information so that I don't screw it up. But it is always good to have another helpline number in case we need it. You might think you will never need something like this, but times and circumstances change and kids make mistakes, so it is great to have this resource. Even if just to get some information for your teens and tweens. Let me know if you have questions.

"When parents find out their teen is abusing drugs or alcohol, the family’s immediate focus is generally on getting help for the teen. But parents are often in great need of help themselves. They may need advice on what to say to their teen, how to evaluate whether he or she needs professional treatment and where to find the appropriate substance abuse treatment program if one is needed. A new toll-free telephone helpline is providing that assistance.

The Parents Toll-Free Helpline, 1-855-DRUGFREE (1-855-378-4373), is staffed by clinical social workers with practical experience in substance abuse prevention and treatment. The helpline, launched by The Partnership at Drugfree.org, began taking calls in April 2011 and will offer bilingual support (English/Spanish) beginning in mid-August.

“When a child has substance abuse issues, the whole family needs support,” says Ken Winters, PhD, Director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and member of The Partnership at Drugfree.org Science Advisory Board. “Parents may need a counselor to walk them through exactly what they will say to their teenager when they suspect substance abuse. If they have not already done so, parents need to establish rules about alcohol and other drugs, and consequences for breaking those rules. They may also need help figuring out whether their adolescent should get a professional assessment. These are some of the things that a counselor on the helpline can assist them with.”

Scientifically Proven Intervention Techniques

The helpline counselors are extensively trained in scientifically proven intervention techniques to assist parents in communicating with their children and find appropriate help when it is needed. One technique is Motivational Interviewing, which tries to move a person to change their behavior, while being sensitive to their level of readiness for change. The technique uses open-ended questions to elicit what the person feels ready for, and makes them feel empowered. For instance, when talking to a parent who is convinced that he or she has no influence on their child, a counselor can have the parent reflect on the ways they had a role in their child’s life in prior years, and have them think about ways they still influence their teen even now that they are older, such as helping them use their free time wisely, Dr. Winters says.

The counselors are also trained in using community reinforcement and family training (CRAFT), which is designed for concerned parents and others to help their loved ones who have problems with drugs or alcohol get into appropriate treatment. The underlying components of CRAFT include teaching effective communication skills, positive reinforcement and contingency management techniques which help parents form a new dialogue with their children.

Starting Conversations About Difficult Issues

Johanna Bos, LMSW, CASAC, is the lead parent support specialist for the helpline and fields calls ranging from parents asking for help in identifying pills they found in their teen’s backpack, to aiding parents in evaluating the effectiveness of a treatment program. She fields a lot of questions about home drug tests and what the results mean. “Sometimes parents just need to talk, and need someone to calm them and give them support. Parents are so focused on the child, they can lose sight of taking care of themselves.”

“I help parents start a conversation with their child about difficult issues,” says Bos, who is also a certified alcohol substance abuse counselor who has been working in the addiction field for 13 years. “A lot of what we do is encourage parents to talk to their child, and find ways to help them get their child on board with treatment if it’s needed.”

She also helps parents find scientifically valid information. “So much information online is linked to people who are trying to take advantage of parents in a vulnerable state,” Bos notes.

Not all of the calls to the helpline have been from parents. For instance, several calls have come in from military wives who have become addicted to morphine patches themselves after using patches prescribed to their husbands for war injuries.

Bos emphasizes that the helpline provides information, but is not a crisis line. The helpline is staffed Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. Parents who call after hours can leave a message and will be contacted the next business day.

Contact doesn’t end with the initial call. Bos asks callers if they would like her to follow up, and if they agree, she calls within two weeks to see if the caller needs further help. She also offers callers the option of contacting another parent who has gone through a similar situation.

The launch of The Parents Toll-Free Helpline was made possible through the generosity of Purdue Pharma, the Bodman Foundation, a private foundation and numerous matching contributions from individuals."

4-Year Plans do March 1st (But please, bring them earlier!)

Students and parents, just a reminder that the 4-year plan written on that green paper is due to the middle school by March 1st. But that is the day students enter their 9th grade schedule online, so that is the latest possible due date. I am advising students to bring completed 4-year plans to me by Feb 18th, or Feb. 25th at the latest. A completed plan has all 8 semesters completely filled out, the credits counted, and the credits must add up to 47 or more. If it does not meet these requirements, it is not finished. The paper copy will stay with the school, but in the meantime, students will enter every class listed on that paper plan into a computer website known as IHaveAPlanIowa. By putting a qualifying plan (47 or more credits, all requirements met) online, we will have complied with a state law stating all 8th graders must have a 4-year plan to graduate before they enter high school. We are going to enter our plans starting sometime around February 25th and finishing before Spring Break.

What if you missed the orientation night last week? Well, you missed a ton, but I will try to catch you up. I can meet with parents if they want to, but I will also be meeting with students in small groups during their study hall to try to catch them up to speed. Here are some resources that can help you.....

Carlisle Counseling Guidance Office website

9th grade Orientation powerpoint, 4-year plan, registration sheet...all found here!

IHaveAPlanIowa homepage

SAP is Here to Help Our Students

This week, I am speaking with students about our SAP (Student Assistance Program) services. Our district helps to provide up to 5 FREE counseling sessions through the SAP during the year when a student has an issue they feel they need counseling for and want more than just the school can offer. Many parents have something similar through their workplace. In fact, all Carlisle employees have this service as well except it is called EAP (Employee Assistance Program). Your child and you might even qualify together through the school's offering if your child is struggling with a family issue. Visits to their office and phone calls to their hotline number are completely confidential and no school employee ever learns who uses these services and who doesn't; we just get numbers each month on how many students and employees use the service. To learn more about this great FREE service, click on their website: Student Assistance Program