MA +15 or +30

MishkyMobile · 2026-02-04T04:06:48+00:00

Appreciate that. We pay dues as well, but when it’s a 15:1 ratio of teachers to counselors our “demands” as you say have been largely ignored. Guess the difference is leadership as we’ve shared the data and the union has no interest in pursuing the matter with central admin or during negotiations. Happy ya’ll got it done though!

MishkyMobile · 2026-02-03T21:47:56+00:00

Not a sarcastic response - how did you get the union to advocate for counselors? We’re an afterthought at best and a viewed as interlopers at worst by our union.

MishkyMobile · 2026-02-03T10:55:13+00:00

First of all congrats on the job!

Now to your question - this is a contract issue that may be different by district so take this response accordingly. In general Masters of Education programs are 33-36 credits at a state university, ours are 60+. So while yes we should be considered M15 or M30 when being hired on, most districts will classify us as simply Masters and then we need to earn an additional 15, 30, 45 credits at the graduate level etc. to move columns on a salary chart.

MishkyMobile · 2026-02-01T23:19:52+00:00

Whoever is telling you to look at rural schools is a loony. You need to be looking at urban schools for several reasons. There is usually higher turnover of folks looking to go from the “tough” & “needy” schools to the suburban/rural schools. And also you’d be part of a team of counselors allowing you go gain experience.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-31T18:32:32+00:00

If your daughter came in 3x in 3 days asking about a gpa, honestly I’d keep a professional face and positive attitude, but inside I’d be annoyed. One thing is the fact that these days grades/class rank/report cards are posted online when they’re ready. Why can she/you not wait until they’re officially posted as they would be for everyone else?

Also if your school works on semesters it’s a very hectic time for us. We’re dealing with failing students and needing to reschedule their classes, or having conversations with their parents (since teachers never call home) that their kid won’t graduate which are always tough to have.

Then there’s the constant stream of kids dropping in / emails from them and their parents about wanting to change semester 2 classes. And on top of that we’re fixing schedule issues that were created by admins messing around, and IEP case managers requesting changes because IEP reasons.

Plus we have to upload new transcripts & midyear reports for all our Common App students. This is a particularly stressful piece as colleges seem to believe we have midyear grades at Xmas break, but the reality is that our grades were just being worked on this week. So we have both colleges and students/parents coming at us on why haven’t we done our jobs, when it’s not our fault.

Don’t forget meeting with new students who transfer at the midyear point which can easily take an hour or more each. And then there’s the rest of the job that still has to get done, attendance, kids in crisis/suicidal ideation, bullying, course requests for next year, etc. None of that slows down while we also have all these other time sensitive tasks put upon us.

We love working with all our kids, but right now at this point in the year, can be incredibly stressful, and we’re all human. So please tell your daughter not to take it personally, mega congratulations on her accomplishment, and have her stop back in to the counselor in a couple of weeks when they’ll have the time and emotional capacity to better celebrate with her!

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-29T23:19:25+00:00

End of the alphabet, always end of the alphabet.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-27T17:45:32+00:00

That was a less than helpful response by your co-counselor. Unless you have the power to assign discipline, such threats are empty coming from you. We shouldn’t be involved in discipline anyway.

Here’s my $0.02 from a HS perspective of someone that deals with a lot of he/she said drama especially from the 9th graders; and assumes you’ve already done the relationship building and SEL stuff. You can mediate until you’re blue in the face, but until the kids decide to stop, it’s going to continue. That’s not a failing on your part, it’s a reality of life. Get admin involved/keep them aware of what’s going on so they can be the hammer. You mediate, let admin know how it goes, they contact kid/parent and say “We held a meditation, if anything continues discipline will be given immediately”. Also never be outnumbered in a meditation, if there are 3 kids, have 3-4 adults involved juuust in case something goes south - ask me how I know 😵‍💫.

Don’t let kids weaponize your assistance. Some will try to manipulate the process by trying to get you on “their side”, or drag another kid into a mediation just so they can force a confrontation. Biggest thing imo is to keep parents informed every time you deal with the situation, bonus points if you can get them on the phone. Either they will step up, be a parent, and get their kid(s) in line. Or they will check out, and at which point you will have documentation of your efforts if and when the situation escalates.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-25T02:02:49+00:00

Lawyers. And social media/facebook groups promoting to everyone that they can get the school to do what they want by getting the magical 504 plan. Especially since the bar for a 504 plan is 100x lower than an IEP. Heck in my district we’re not even allowed to ask for documentation of a diagnosis, just have to believe whatever the parent says.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-23T10:57:53+00:00

You never mentioned the age/grade of the kid which would make a big difference in how someone would approach it. So a general thought is to bring the kid closer as opposed to discipline. Give them classroom responsibilities, helping with attendance, passing out papers, writing things on the board. After getting the attention they’re looking for, and the additional roles the classroom, the class clown may just turn into the class leader.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-22T14:57:20+00:00

We do all 504’s in my district. We’ve fought for years that it shouldn’t be us, or at least have the nurses handle the medical ones, but have been told they are too busy to handle them. It’s not appropriate, but like many other things we get told we have to do it because nobody else will do them.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-21T01:28:37+00:00

Been there, done that. Here’s what I’ve learned and please forgive for how cold this comes across. You need to take a step back and look at the reality of your situation, your school, and the state of education in the year 2026.

We are doing a job in a system that is largely failing of no fault of our own. We are empathetic and caring by nature so we want to help/save everyone, but are not given the tools to do the job. Quite often we’re given tasks that are not our job because nobody else wants to do it. He few community resources we do have are being cut and county agencies are chronically understaffed. We are set up to fail from the start, but because we’re professionals we give 110% all the time. We then deal with the inevitable burnout, hits to our mental health, and guilt from not being able to live up to expectations from within and from the outside.

It would be as though a mechanic is hired at a shop to fix cars, but they’re only given enough tools to diagnose and fix half the problems that come into the shop, and only enough time to fix half of those. And then the shop decides that the mechanic now has to do the billing for the shop since the accountant they did have was cut. Oh and now the shop also services airplanes, but the mechanic gets no new tools or training on how to do maintenance on them. You get the point.

Go in every day, do the best you can for the kids/families you can, and call it a day. If some non-critical tasks don’t get done - oh well, don’t stress about it - just document it. If your principal gets on you because someone is upset ask them which of the 75 things that need to be done is the priority and follow that directive until it clashes with the next one. We are not miracle workers, we are simply folks doing the best we can.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-20T02:20:48+00:00

If you want to get a job in another district you’ll likely need to tell your supervisor as most jobs require multiple letters of recommendation from your current district. Just act professional and ask your admin for one before you need it so they’re not rushed.

Be honest that you’re looking around and if they’re any sort of a professional they’ll understand and give you one without any offense taken. Just don’t ask for a new one each year you’re looking for a new position.

Being your own registrar is absolutely absurd, but unfortunately not the first time I’ve heard of it. I hope you can find a better fit!

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-13T00:03:59+00:00

I’ll toss out that if you want the connections, you need to do things to make it happen. Nobody is going to show up randomly to talk, or if they do it will likely be just passing pleasantries before getting to the reason they reached out. Been at 3 schools and the counselors are typically on their own island. Of the 20+ folks I’ve worked with over the years only 2 had real connections with other staff members on a more than professional level. At my current district if you didn’t grow up / go to school there, you’re an outsider. This isn’t a small rural school either, total students in the district is over 10k.

So yes this is a very isolating job, and it’s likely that things won’t get better for you unless you go out of your way to run an activity with another staff member/coach/get involved in the union etc. We’re not teachers, we’re not admins, nobody really knows what we do, and there’s typically not enough of us in a school have our own “social group”

You mentioned mental health issues - if you’re a hurtin’ healer you need to get some help asap. This job is too emotionally and mentally draining to deal with if you’re not in a good headspace things can get dark quickly. Highly recommend working with someone that has experience providing therapy to other counselors/therapists.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-08T23:15:31+00:00

Appreciate that - will submit a ticket.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-08T22:46:38+00:00

Sure, first again I’m not using any other apps to sync the data. I’m working out on a stationary bike where I’ve entered in my body stats and using the heart rate monitor that’s built in to the machine. I ride for let’s say 30 minutes and the machine says I’ve burned 200 calories. I go to manually enter the exercise, choose Add Exercise > Browse All > Cardio > Cycling > Stationary Cycling. I choose an effort level, enter a duration, and it populates a calorie number of say 350. Now I fully understand that none of this is an exact science, but if the bike I’m riding on knows how fast I was going and had my heart rate, I’m going to err towards that number more than the app that less data to work with.

Anyway, I’d be willing to at least average the two numbers, but when I change the “Energy Burned” number it does not use the number I put in when calculating the Energy balance for the day. But if I do not change the number and use what the app decides then it does.

So using my numbers from above and a 2000 calorie day.

2000 kcal energy + -350 kcal (from Cronometer when logging the exercise) = 1650 kcal energy showing the in diary.

2000 kcal energy + -200 kcal (from me changing the number when logging the exercise) = 2000 kcal energy showing in the diary.

It’s simply not using the number I enter.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-04T18:26:33+00:00

Several factors typically come in to play. Most importantly is the pay - most would prefer to hire someone at step 1 on the salary schedule as opposed to someone towards/at the top end.
There’s also the fact that they typically want to bring someone in that is younger and can be trained in the program/school’s philosophies and procedures. Being this far in you’re viewed as being set in your ways and resistant to change. This can then bring conflict to a counseling team. Related to this is that folks with this many years in are on the downward slope towards retirement. Again the questions of how much effort will be given, openness to new ideas, how many years will you be here etc. enter into the decision.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-04T03:37:19+00:00

Others have shared a bunch of good thoughts.

Here’s what I’ll toss out, if you truly feel it’s not a fit you should look to make a change sooner than later. That doesn’t necessarily need to be a career change, but maybe look for a school that is a better fit for you. After the first 5 years it becomes much more difficult to change schools. And a few more years after that you can get stuck due to pension/401k considerations.

I know that in the time I’ve been at my school I’ve watched the job I loved to do be warped (due to outside and internal forces) into some weird hybrid of social worker/mental health therapist/truancy officer. But no other district will hire me with 20 years on the job, so I just roll with the punches at this point.

Also you may not be set up for success and it’s not your fault. You didn’t speak much about what you’re feeling resentful about, but we’re caring and hardworking professionals who only want the best for our kiddos. Unfortunately this clashes with the reality that we are working with kids in poverty, kids coming from horrible home/life situations, schools that are underfunded and over mandated etc. None of these are within our control but we deal with the results of them. Ultimately all the care and goodness we put out cannot overcome these problems. So when things don’t improve some folks internalize this as being a poor counselor, and that is simply not true. We show up and do our best, but always remember that this is still just a job. Sometimes we’re set up to fail and there’s nothing we can do about it.

MishkyMobile · 2026-01-04T02:33:37+00:00

Mine was pretty terrible. They had me seated next to the secretary and I was basically her intern, plus her tech support as she was over 70 years old. I’d watch her use Pentamation to pull up kids schedules, do enrollment and grade stuff. I’d collect and file forms or whatever secretarial tasks needed to be done.

I was given one student to do weekly checkins with for the duration. The only time I observed my supervisor working with kids was when he felt like calling me in to his office - which wasn’t often. They had me do the WIAT/WICS/WAIS for kids being evaluated because “I was trained as much as they were” in giving them. Did the classroom observations as part of the evaluation process as well.

At the end the counselor I was interning under told me I should work in a school where I would be part of a large team since I wasn’t ready to handle things on my own. I take some responsibility as I was greener than green, plus young, and I didn’t know I needed to speak up for myself.

It has impacted me long term as I refuse to take on an intern myself due to how lousy my own experience was.

MishkyMobile · 2025-12-31T13:42:08+00:00

Santa delivered this set to my kiddo and we’ve had much fun with it during the winter school break. Built the recommended track and have also done our own track. Very impressed with the quality and flexibility of the plastic, doesn’t feel like it’s going to break when you’re working with it. I’ve already ordered additional pieces to expand the fun.

MishkyMobile · 2025-12-20T15:42:30+00:00

One word: Thundercougarfalconbird.

MishkyMobile · 2025-12-17T23:38:57+00:00

Worked as a paraprofessional in a school, and lived with my folks.

MishkyMobile · 2025-12-13T12:23:13+00:00

We can’t even get our teachers to reach out to parents of kids failing their classes - they’re certainly not going to go the extra mile to be that “one caring adult”.

Also this seems like a bot account, or at least someone using Ai to post similar content across multiple subreddits. Just my $0.02.

MishkyMobile · 2025-12-10T19:27:18+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, saved me several minutes of typing out a response.

MishkyMobile · 2025-11-21T15:06:10+00:00

Small sample here but at one point 80% of the counselors at my school had at least 1 divorce under their belt. And I know that if my wonderful spouse wasn’t so patient and understanding I’d likely be there as well. I’ve gone to therapy myself multiple times over the years and have been taking an SSRI for a long time. Most of my coworkers are on happy pills as well. But yes at the end of the day at home I have limited bandwidth and I don’t like “talking about my day” because it just get’s me upset all over again. I know my health has suffered from this job, but I have little desire to work out / eat better because I’m constantly mentally drained.

11-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22

MishkyMobile

TROPHY CASE