West Counselors are Here to Help

West Counselors, Mrs. Rieboldt and Mrs. Swift, are here to support and care for students. The counselors are here so they can help you with your academic success. 

Each student is assigned a counselor by the first letter of your last name. If your last name begins with A-L, your counselor is Mrs.Swift. Last names starting with M-Z have Mrs.Rieboldt. Their offices are just past the main office and before the West Media Center. You can seek them out anytime you need, as long as they’re available. 

The counselors sometimes will call you into their office. Reasons to be called down could be if your grades drop quickly if someone tells them you’re not getting along with another student, or you’ve been getting in trouble a lot.
When you get to their office, they will ask you how you’re doing. If there’s a reason behind bad grades, not getting along with people, or any other reason for your visit. Mrs.Swift says she is “kind of like a detective”, she’ll start finding the problem and working to find a way to fix it. 

Both counselors agree that they do not share any information you tell them, but Mrs. Swift explains, “If a student tells me they are going to hurt themselves or someone else, then we need to call a parent. If not, then no”. If the counselors feel others should know, but if nobody is at risk of being hurt, they will ask for permission before telling others.

The counselors hope that when you leave the office, you leave knowing that they care about you, and you have someone who supports you and will help you. They both want to help you with anything that might be getting in the way of school success.

 This is Mrs. Swift’s 23rd year counseling at West and is a therapist outside of school. This is Mrs.Rieboldt’s first year at West.
Something else the counselors help with is the 504 sheets. 504 sheets are something to help a student with special needs. For example, maybe if they have a disability that makes it harder to do classwork, they can get an extra day on their assignments, or if they get anxious easily they’re allowed to leave the room for a couple minutes. The counselors will help write them out and inform Mr.Smiley about them.

Both counselors say they enjoy working with kids, which is part of why they are counselors. Mrs. Swift says, “I’m here to help students. I hope the effect is positive. It’s about helping students with whatever’s getting in the way of school success. I want them to know I care about them.”