Counseling
Sadie Halstead Middle School Counseling Services & Student Assistance Program
Mrs. Sarah Theal
School Counselor
Monday-Friday
Email: thealsarah@newportgriz.com
Phone: 509-447-2426
All Grades
Mrs. Kelly Miethe
School Social Worker
Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday 1/2 Day
Email: miethekelly@newportgriz.com
Phone: 1-509-447-2426
Ms. Daylan Kiss
Student Assistance Professional
Phone: 509-447-2426
Email: kissdaylan@newportgriz.com
Wednesday 1/2 day, Thursday-Friday
Individual Counseling
We also provide brief individual counseling at school. For students interested in ongoing individual counseling, we provide referrals, assistance in completing any intake paperwork required and support through the counseling process.
Discussion Groups
Discussion Groups/ Group Counseling
In order to better meet the needs of the students, Sadie Halstead Middle School will be offering discussion groups on a weekly basis during school hours. These groups are intended to provide a safe and confidential setting for students to discuss various subjects.
The mission of these groups is to provide students with the ability to understand and articulate their feelings and to help them gain self-awareness, self-esteem, explore their relationships with others, feel more in control of their lives, and face the future with confidence.
A variety of groups are offered however only a selected few will take place each semester. The referrals received will determine which groups are offered and when.
Possible Groups:
Concerned Persons: This group is for students who are concerned about the use/abuse of alcohol and/or other drugs by a friend or family member.
Feelings Management: This group is a place where students can talk about and learn to manage the roller coaster of feelings they deal with: humor, anger, fear, love, hate, happiness, disappointment, sadness and more.
Friendship: For some students, friendships come easy while others have a harder time making friends. This group will discuss what friendship is, how to make friend and how to keep friends.
Insight: This group is for students who are concerned about their own alcohol and/or drug use.
Prevention Education: This is an alcohol, drug use prevention group, for students at risk for using, but not currently using alcohol or drugs.
Girl Power!
The Girl Power conference is an event offered to 7th and 8th grade girls. The goals of the conference are to bring girls together to experience the solidarity of Girl Power, educate girls about healthy choices for enhanced nutrition, fitness and relationships and to inspire girls to be kind, strong, smart and bold.
Life Skills
Our school also offers the Life Skills Training program to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. Students take Life Skills during health. Rather than merely teaching information about the dangers of drug abuse, LifeSkills Training promotes healthy alternatives to risky behavior through activities designed to:
- Teach students the necessary skills to resist social (peer) pressures to smoke, drink, and use drugs.
- Help students to develop greater self-esteem and self-confidence
- Enable students to effectively cope with anxiety
- Increase their knowledge of the immediate consequences of substance abuse
- Enhance cognitive and behavioral competency to reduce and prevent a variety of health risk behaviors.
Funding for this program is provided by Pend Oreille County Counseling Services Prevention/ Intervention Program.
School Based Mentoring
Newport School Districts has been implementing a mentoring program since 2005. The program matches a trained high school student with a middle school student. The goal of the program is to build a friendship between the match that will enhance the student’s self-esteem, attitude towards school and academic performance.
STUDENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
TheStudent Assistance Program (SAP) is offered at Newport School District for grades 5th-12th. SAP is a school-based program that works to reduce the factors that put students at risk for substance abuse, while working to enhance the factors that will protect students from the risks.
How Is this Accomplished
These lofty goals are accomplished by placing highly trained counselors in the school to provide preventive services such as drug education, early identification of risks, learning skills assessments, family engagement, counseling, and support groups for students and families.
Strategies might include:
- Giving student’s information to increase their understanding about harmful consequences of using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
- Helping students understand that most teens don’t use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
- Providing services to students who are experiencing stress
- Teaching students skills for resisting peer pressure, responding to conflicts, and managing anger
- Referring students and families to services in the school and community.
- Working with the school and community to promote alcohol, tobacco, and drug free lifestyles for teens
School Based Mentoring
Newport School Districts has been implementing a mentoring program since 2005. The program matches a trained high school student with a middle school student. The goal of the program is to build a friendship between the match that will enhance the student’s self-esteem, attitude towards school and academic performance.
Clubs
SADD Club (Students Against Destructive Decisions)
All students at Sadie Halstead are welcome to join the schools SADD Club. SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions. SADD's mission is to provide students with the best prevention and intervention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drink, other drug use, impaired driving and other destructive decisions. The club currently has about 40 members who help plan monthly prevention events for the entire school. One event the students are looking forward to is the TATU program. TATU stands for Teens Against Tobacco Use. The SADD Club members attend a day long training on the dangers of tobacco use and how to present the information they have learned. The club then goes into the elementary school and gives presentations with the goal the students will choose to be tobacco free. Membership is free and joining is easy. All students need to do is attend club meetings, which are every Thursday morning at 7:30 AM
Career Planning and Scholarships
