MASCA
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL COUNSELORS ASSOCIATION
VOL. 52, NO. 2
OCTOBER 2015
MASCA mourns the passing of the Counselor’s Notebook editor
M
ASCA mourns the passing of the Counselor’s Notebook editor, Sally Ann (Freedman) Connolly on September 9, 2015. A retired school counselor, Sally was the valedictorian and a magna cum laude graduate of Merrimack College (1961). She continued studying Sociology at Catholic University of America and later received her graduate degree in Guidance and Counseling from Salem State College. She began her career in education at Peabody High School and also taught at Mount Wachusett Community College and North Shore Community College. For 21 years, until her retirement, Sally was a school counselor at North Shore Technical High School in Beverly and Middleton. Besides serving as editor of the Counselor’s Notebook, Sally was a past president and an active member
SALLY ANN CONNOLLY
of Northeast Counselors Association. An elegant, creative woman, Sally will be sadly missed. The wife of the late Dr. Eugene Connolly, she is survived by her children, Kathleen Connolly and her longtime boyfriend Sean Degan of Groveland, Sean Michael Connolly, Esq. of Marblehead and his fiancée JoJo, Jennifer Connolly of Danvers and Kelly Ann Colby and her husband David of Merrimac, her seven grandchildren: Sommerlyn, Jacquelyn, and Brendan Jones of Danvers and Kaitlyn, Olivia, Jack and Emma Colby of Merrimac, her sister, Janice Lomas and her husband Fred of West Peabody, her niece, Heather Magner of West Peabody and her nephew, Eric Lomas of Danvers and her sister-in-law, Margaret Connolly of Newburyport. ■
President’s Message By RUTH CARRIGAN, MASCA President
I
hope that the start to the school year has been a good one and that by the time this issue of the Counselor’s Notebook reaches you, the hectic pace of the start of school has settled down a little bit. I always smile when friends and parents of my students say, “This must be a busy time of year for you.” If your job is anything like mine, it is always a busy time of year— the only thing that changes is the focus of the student success initiative I am busy doing! Believe it or not, we are already hard at work planning the MASCA Spring Conference and Reach Higher Convening, which will be held on April 4 (afternoon pre-conference) and April 5 (fullday conference) at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough. By now, I hope you are familiar with the Reach Higher initiative in the Com-
monwealth. Our goal is to inspire every student to take charge of his/her future by completing education past high school through postsecondary training or a twoor four-year degree program. You might think that this should be an easy goal to achieve. After all, we work with students in Massachusetts who seem to lead the nation in academic preparedness. Despite hearing accolades regarding Massachusetts students and high test scores on a regular basis, you might be surprised to learn that the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy recently reported that only 41 percent of the approximately 76,000 Massachusetts high school students in the 2007 graduation cohort had earned a postsecondary degree six years later. Clearly, there is work to do regarding student outcomes. We feel that we can
take steps to accomplish our “Reach Higher” goal by providing relevant professional development for school counselors working with K-12 students across Massachusetts. Our workshop strands for the conference and initiative will focus on helping students “Reach Higher” by providing academic, social/emotional, and college and career readiness best practices in school counseling. Our call for programs will be available soon. If you have a best practice to share, please consider submitting a workshop proposal so that you can share your expertise with other school counselors throughout the state. As always, thank you for the important work you do every day laying the groundwork to help your students find academic, personal, and college /career readiness success. ■